Fannie Mae
Definition of "Fannie Mae"
Wondering who is this Fannie Mae person that your real estate agent always mentions when the subject about mortgage is brought up?
Fannie Mae is not a person, nor a Woody Allen female character – but the way people commonly refer to The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA).
But, to be fair, although it is not a person, to better understand Fannie Mae definition we need to tell its story as if we were telling a person’s life:
Fannie Mae was founded as a government-sponsored enterprise in 1938 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration’s “New Deal” on the aftermath of the Great Depression. The idea behind Fannie Mae was to inject federal money into privately owned banks to finance home mortgages and raise the levels of home ownership after so many Americans had their homes foreclosed on due to defaulting because of the economical crisis. Fannie Mae was an aggressive second mortgage market supporter that connected their financial injection with the obligation of buying Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance. So much so, it basically held a second mortgage monopoly for over 30 years.
But with the economy re-established, The Federal National Mortgage Association has been through a lot of changes. It became a mixed-ownership corporation in the 1950s and eventually turned into a government-sponsored, publicly traded and privately held corporation spawning Ginnie Mae (Government National Mortgage Association) and the privately held corporation that kept the “Fannie Mae” name without the “Federal National Mortgage Association”.
Yes, it’s like a family, right? You have Fannie Mae, younger sister Ginnie Mae and love interest on that love-hate relationship Freddie Mac. The name of this sitcom? “The Mortgages”?
Real Estate Tips:
Find a local real estate agent to advise you on the best type of mortgage to your specific home.
Popular Mortgage Terms
All the combinations of interest rate and points that are offered on a particular loan program. On an ARM, rates and points may also vary with the margin and interest rate maximum. ...
A particular computerized system for doing automated underwriting. Mortgage insurers and some large lenders have developed such systems, but the most widely used are Fannie Mae's 'Desktop ...
The provision of the U.S. tax code that allows homeowners to deduct mortgage interest payments from income before computing taxes. Points and origination fees are also deductible, but not ...
During the great depression of the 1930s, the government stepped in and came with an innovative loan to help the banking industry recover, thus putting the whole economy back on track. FHA ...
The date on which the closing occurs. On a purchase transaction, there is no financial advantage to the buyer/borrower in closing on any day of the month, as compared to any other day. ...
A non-citizen with a green card employed in the U.S. Non-permanent resident aliens are subject to somewhat more restrictive qualification requirements than U.S. citizens. Permanent ...
The interest rate used in calculating the initial mortgage payment in qualifying a borrower. The rate used in qualifying borrowers may or may not be the initial rate on the mortgage. On ...
Protection for a borrower against the danger that rates will rise between the time the borrower applies for a loan and the time the loan closes. Rate protection can take the form of a ...
The portion of the monthly payment that is used to reduce the loan balance. ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.