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
The amount of interest, expressed in dollars, computed by multiplying the loan balance at the end of the preceding period times the annual interest rate divided by the interest accrual ...
A documentation requirement where the applicant's assets are not disclosed. ...
Charging unwary borrowers interest rates and/or fees that are excessive relative to what the same borrowers could have found had they shopped the market. ...
The payment of principal and interest made by the borrower. ...
A lender who offers mortgage loans directly to the public. ...
Often referred to as a “second mortgage”, a home equity loan is a type of loan where the borrower disposes to the lender its equity to the home as collateral. To ...
A home built entirely in a factory, transported to a site, and installed there. Manufactured homes are distinguished from 'modular,' 'panelized'' and 'pre-cut' homes. Manufactured houses ...
A fee that some lenders charge to accept an application. It may or may not cover other costs such as a property appraisal or credit report, and it may or may not be refundable if the lender ...
A derogatory term for lender fees that are expressed in dollars rather than as a percent of the loan amount. ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.