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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The writer is chief executive of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group
What if I told you there could be an unprecedented stimulus injection into the US economy that will cost the government nothing and add not $1 to the national deficit? As early as this summer, a proposed move could begin to unleash almost $1tn into consumers’ wallets. By the autumn, it could be on its way to $2tn.
Last month, the government-sponsored mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac filed a proposal with its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to enter into the secondary mortgage market, otherwise known as home equity loans. This was a smart move by Freddie, and the FHFA will do a lot of good by approving it. Despite the more than $32tn in equity on homeowner balance sheets, very little of it has been tapped through home equity loans.
In 2007, just before the financial crisis, there was more than $700bn in home equity loans outstanding. Today, there is roughly $350bn. Home prices have risen more than 70 per cent since then, so why have home equity loans halved?
After the financial crisis, banks have actively taken down their mortgage exposure. Bank of America, for example, has cut its home equity loan portfolio from more than $150bn in 2009 to $25bn. And in 2022, more than 50 per cent of home loans originated from non-traditional operators. These non-bank companies don’t have the balance sheets to hold loans as the banks had traditionally done, so unless they can sell the loans they originate to Freddie, its fellow housing agencies Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae, or private investors, they don’t originate them.
There is a robust and well-oiled mortgage-backed securities machine for first mortgages in which Fannie, Freddie or Ginnie buys mortgages, pools them and sells them as mortgage-backed securities to private investors on the open market, facilitated by Wall Street firms. This process dramatically increases liquidity in the market. None of this liquidity exists in the second mortgage market.
The Freddie Mac proposal could change all that, and it could not come at a better time. Most people in the US are feeling the sting of persistent inflation, but older Americans living on a fixed income have been hit particularly hard. Insurance costs for homeowners have risen well over 11 per cent over three years while they are paying more tax. US property tax revenues have risen 26 per cent over the past three years.
That is probably why seniors have taken on more debt than any other age group over the past few years. Today, they hold 23 per cent of all consumer debt, double their share in 1999. These trends should seem counterintuitive, as typically younger individuals and older individuals would be at either side of the bell curve of total consumer debt outstanding with less debt.
Prior to the financial crisis, this was how the balance of consumer debt was distributed. Now, almost half of all seniors are at risk of a financial shock with less than six weeks of liquid savings. This means that if they face an unexpected medical expense, a sudden home repair or a rapid increase in property taxes and insurance, they have no safety net. This vulnerability makes older adults a highly receptive audience to home equity products, provided they are reasonably priced and relatively easy to access.
The proposed Freddie Mac second mortgage/home equity proposal, if implemented effectively, could be a lifeline for these households, offering them financial flexibility. It sets up guidelines to protect both the borrower and Freddie Mac that are likely to be the template for future moves by Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae. Freddie will only buy the second mortgages of borrowers that it already has a first mortgage with, and the combined loan-to-value of both the first and the second mortgage cannot exceed 80 per cent of the value of the property. The current loan-to-value of Freddie’s mortgage portfolio is 52 per cent. Thus, we estimate Freddie could unlock $980bn in equity for homeowners.
If Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mac follow Freddie Mac’s lead into buying second mortgages, we estimate the secondary home equity loan market could exceed $3tn. By opening up the securitisation market for second mortgages, not only would more institutions be inclined to originate the loans, but the cost to borrowers would meaningfully decline with more finance providers. It would also provide big stimulus to an economy and consumer that appear to be slowing down without adding a dime to government debt. Rarely have I seen such a true win-win scenario for the government, Wall Street and the US consumer.
