(RECAP: The recent choice by Fannie Mae to backstop nearly $1 billion in debt issued by Blackstone Inc., a private company that buys single-family rental homes, was “terrible policy,” according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. The Realtors have expressed concern about the growing popularity of investor-owned homes for rent in past months. One of the housing market’s largest hurdles recently has been the lack of available supply for buy. That means not just fewer choices for buyers, but higher prices as well.)

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(RECAP: The City of Falls Church is proud to announce the seventh annual Northern Virginia Housing Expo on March 18 at Sterling’s Dominion High School in Loudoun County, Virginia. The event is hosted by Fairfax-based nonprofit AHOME Foundation in cooperation with the City of Falls Church and other municipalities across Northern Virginia. Anyone looking for an affordable place to live in Northern Virginia should plot to attend the event, which will showcase both home ownership and rental opportunities and resources throughout the area.)

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(RECAP: Now that the MBA has announced its proposed fix for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, industry experts are offering various opinions concerning the future of the GSEs. Although the full version of the MBA’s “GSE Reform Principles and Guardrails,” prepared by the MBA’s Task Force for a Future Secondary Mortgage Market, will not be available until April, the association recently offered some highlights of what the future end state should be built upon. Among the principles are the following: preserving the 30-year, fixed-rate, single-family mortgage; maintaining a deep, liquid to-be-announced market for conventional single-family loans; an explicit government guarantee of eligible MBS-backed mortgages; addressing the availability of affordable housing; and equitable, transparent and direct access to secondary market programs for lenders of all sizes and business models.)

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