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
Fees assessed by lenders when payments are late. Late fees are usually 4% or 5% of the payment. A borrower with a 6% mortgage for 30 years who pays a 5% late charge every month raises his ...
A lender offering loans on the Internet who provides mortgage shoppers with the information they need to make an informed decision before applying for a mortgage and guarantees them ...
Proliferation in the number of loan, borrower, property, and transaction characteristics used by lenders to set mortgage prices and underwriting requirements. Nichification is unique to ...
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 ...
A document that evidences a debt and a promise to repay. A mortgage loan transaction always includes a note evidencing the debt, and a mortgage evidencing the lien on the property. ...
The upfront and/or periodic charges that the borrower pays for mortgage insurance. There are different mortgage insurance plans with differing combinations of monthly, annual, and upfront ...
The number of days for which any lock or float-down holds. The longer the period, the higher the price to the borrower. ...
Fixed rate Mortgage is a type of loan that maintains a specified interest rate for the lifetime (or maturity) of the mortgage.According to the Federal National Mortgage Association, ...
The total cash required of the home buyer/borrower to close the purchase plus loan transaction or the loan transaction on a refinance. Required cash includes the down payment, points and ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.