Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Originally posted by: blackangst1
Vic: out of curiousity how much of the secondary market would affect Fannie? My knowledge is mostly in asset securities, not so much in real estate. And if I remember arent they private? What does that do to their possible impact on securities?
Both
Fannie and
Freddie are public. I haven't looked at any of their debt, I believe they may be trading a little wider than before, but I don't have time to look at bloomberg right now. Freddie and Fannie both are GSEs, as I am sure you know, which people take as an implicit guarantee by the government to cover losses, which isn't wholly correct, since there is no guarantee agreeement but many believe the govt would help. However, that doesn't stop the market from pricing in some type of guarantee, as F&F bonds are seen as higher rated. They have recently looked at expanding their holdings of subprime paper and an increase in the jumbo area.
Keep in mind that they largely trade in prime conforming loans, so they are, for the most part, unaffected materially by the recent market issues.
Thanks LK. Any speculation as to why F&F are considering subprime given the current market? They are pretty stable, all things considered...seems odd they would take that gamble...