Right here, I assume?
Yeah, that's right. We'll just wait until everybody shows up.
[Inaudible] here for you.
How were your holidays?
Good. Yours?
It was good. Where's home for you?
Here, basically.
Really?
Yeah.
But like, don't you -- before you came to Washington?
Florida. Yeah.
OK. Do you head down there?
I spent -- try to. I try.
OK. Yeah, good.
Do you want this?
Should I do this or no? It looks kind of weird, doesn't it?
I mean, is that weird for him to hold that?
It's probably weird, right?
Is there anything else -- is there something?
I'll hold it for a second.
It's raining. It's raining, so whatever. Oh, no, you're good.
Hello.
Hi. How are you?
Thanks for coming out in the rain.
Of course. Should I -- should I take the stupid umbrella away?
No.
You're good.
Is it a -- is it a good look, or no?
It doesn't matter.
OK.
As long as the camera can see you, it's fine.
You're good.
Do you want to make a statement or should we just start asking questions?
You can just ask questions. Yeah.
OK. Let me ask you a question to begin with. That idea of a 50 year mortgage, is that still on the table? Is that something the administration is still considering?
I think we have other priorities, specifically the banning of institutional home buying. You know, it's been something that the Democrats and a lot of people have talked about for a very long time, but we finally have a president that has the guts to do something about it. I'm very confident it will happen.
He'll take executive action and then after that, we'll look to codify it from Congress. And I can tell you that I think there's tremendous inertia to get it codified in Congress.
Question on that, what does the administration intend to do with homes that are already owned by institutional investors?
There won't be a forced sale of institutional homes, but what we're going to look to do is to seek to prevent new homes from being bought by large institutions that are taking the home ownership dream away from Americans and putting it on corporate balance sheets.
What happened with the 50 year mortgage idea? I know that had been floated. Was that something that the president said he no longer wanted to see as a policy idea? Kind of walk us through that.
We're looking at everything to lower the cost of a mortgage. We are looking at everything to lower the cost of owning a home. And for the last four years, you had a president who frankly didn't know Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac existed. I'm not sure he knew he existed, but he certainly didn't know Fannie and Freddie existed.
And so we're using all the tools at Fannie and Freddie. We've given him -- we've given the president 30 to 50 different ideas between Secretary Turner, Secretary Lutnick, Secretary Bessent, myself, Kevin Hassett, the vice president. The president is in the process of looking at all of those different ideas, and I feel very confident that he'll announce a couple of very good ideas in Davos.
And then we'll see from there what he wants to do.
Besides relying -- besides relying on the fed, is there anything that your agency can do in terms of lowering mortgage rates?
Well, we're buying $200 billion worth of bonds, so that's a pretty big deal. I met with the team this morning. We put in a $3 billion buy already. So, you know, we are a full-fledged focused on executing the president's vision. He laid out yesterday in the Truth Social that he wants to see action happen at Fannie and Freddie, and so we're making it happen.
You've seen mortgage rates actually go into the fives today. That is a huge deal for the American people. So you've got the ban on institutional home buying, plus you've got mortgage rates in the five percent. This is a huge week for housing in the country. We've completely changed the narrative on housing, I think, especially after these last four years of hell that we've had in the housing market.
And let me ask on the -- on the purchases of mortgage bonds.
I'm going to give you this. All right?
How much cash buffer is reasonable for Fannie and Freddie to have?
I think that Fannie and Freddie have way more liquidity than we know what to do with. And so we -- we believe in the mortgage market. We believe that the mortgage market is very sound. The mortgages that we're underwriting are not like they were in 2008. And so we feel very confident in our liquidity position.
And the companies are earning more money than ever and they're being run like businesses. You know, under Biden, he had people working from home. I have something like 16,000 employees at Fannie and Freddie. I mean, people weren't even in these buildings. We had one building out in Virginia, 2,900 people is how many people should be in the building.
Do you know how many people were in the building on a max, like 40.
How about in terms of cash buffer, what's like a reasonable size?
I don't want to say about what a reasonable size is. We're mostly focused on managing our liquidity profile. That includes cash, cash equivalents. The teams at Fannie and Freddie feel very confident that they can execute the mortgage bond purchase and they're in the process of doing it. We have great people on our team there.
And --
Should -- should the fed stop selling off its mortgage --
I defer to you -- I defer to the president and to the economic team on the fed, but we do need to get rid of Jay Powell. He's a disaster. What he's caused with the building is a disgrace to the fed. The fed has no credibility as a result of him and his lack of investigation into Lisa Cook, who I think will be indicted for mortgage fraud.
And I think she's guilty as hell. This is just my opinion. As somebody who knows mortgages pretty well. Uh, it's a disgrace what's happened to the fed and hopefully, we -- hopefully, we get a fed chair soon. I think the president will do that.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. Pulte, are you still looking into this idea of mortgage transferability, the idea that if you have a mortgage right now and you'd like to purchase a new home, you can transfer the mortgage you have right now, which could be a very low mortgage rate, to that new home? Is that possible?
We are looking at everything and anything that can bring down the cost of homes. That includes portable mortgages. I will tell you, though, that the President has the list of things that he's looking at doing and he'll decide whether or not we -- we do that. So stay tuned.
How does --
Davos is going to be very exciting for housing.
How does this bond plan impact the conversation about privatization?
Well, I think that the IPO can still very much happen and, in some cases, people say it will actually be better because the earnings of the companies will go up. You know, we've been investing in cash and we've been investing in US treasuries and those have a lower yield than the mortgage bonds do. So I think you're going to see at least several hundred million dollars of incremental earnings at Fannie and Freddie from these MBS purchases.
So it has a double effect; it's great for the American people and it's also potentially good for a prospective IPO if the president decides that he wants to take it with an IPO.
Are you cooperating with the GAO investigation into your dealings with --
I don't want to comment on any investigation. I feel very confident that we followed the law. Politics is politics. I'm not going to be deterred though. You know, look, we had one politician who was indicted based on mortgage fraud, based on evidence that we uncovered, and people can do whatever they want.
But at the end of the day, I feel very confident that we have an obligation to carry out our duty, which is to find mortgage fraud and report it no matter whether it's a Republican or a Democrat.
Which politician are you referring to?
Well, Letitia James was indicted by a grand jury.
And what's -- what's the current state of that indictment from your understanding?
I don't know. You'd have to talk to the DOJ and FBI.
Wasn't it thrown out?
I think it was -- it had something to do with an appointment with the US attorney, but I can only speak to the mortgage fraud allegations, which is, I believe she's guilty as hell. She's crooked. And this effort by the media and this effort by her attorneys to somehow say that, you know, people can expense certain things on their tax returns that you and I couldn't get away with, or in the case of saying that something's going to be her secondary residence when it's an investment property, this is not stuff that we can have in the mortgage market.
And Letitia, James is one example. But Lisa Cook would be another. And I think the media would be very disappointed to know that, you know, we've also referred Republicans. Now, that doesn't get leaked by the liberal press or found out by the liberal press, but Republicans and Democrats have -- we look at anything.
If you have mortgage fraud, we will look at it.
Who were some of the Republicans?
I'm not going to comment on any specific investigation. I just say that, uh, you know, the media is going to be very disappointed when they learn that we have called balls and strikes.
The president has been very clear that affordability is a big part of his agenda in 2026, perhaps the key part of his agenda going into this midterm year. Do you have a timeline for your work and making housing affordable in this country?
Well, we've already started making housing more affordable. You look at the mortgage rates. When the president came into office, Biden was at seven percent mortgage rates. Today you have a five handle on mortgages. Yesterday, the mortgage market closed at something like 6.2 percent on mortgages. I just saw before I came out here, and it will be public soon, that mortgages being offered now today for 5.875 percent.
That is huge. That is absolutely huge. So we are delivering, I believe, on, you know, accessing -- making homes more accessible to people and I think you'll see that over time. But unlike, you know, Pocahontas and some of these people who want to sit there and talk about how bad institutions are for buying, President Trump is actually getting things done.
[Crosstalk]
Can you share details about your plan for incentivizing more home building?
Yeah, we -- we provide a lot of liquidity to the builders at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I think you'll see us come out with some announcements. And I wouldn't be surprised to see the builders step up some of their supply. They're sitting on two million lots. They need to build. And you know, we're hoping to work constructively with them, but we also have tools to make sure that they -- they get building again.
Has your relationship with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent improved?
Very good. My relationship with Secretary Bessent is very good. It's very good with Secretary Lutnick, very good with Kevin Hassett, the vice president. We are really working well together as a team. That's just the truth. And it's exciting to work on this team because, you know, we put ideas in front of a president and the president says get it done, and boom, boom, boom.
Next thing you know, the mortgage rates are in the fives, so this is a huge win. And this institutional ban -- banning of homes is a -- of home buying is a very, very big deal and I think there's going to have tremendous effects on the housing market.
Do you have a timeline on that -- Can you just walk us through the rationale of making this housing announcement in Davos? And will the president take that message on the road domestically afterwards?
I think the president will share the message everywhere he goes. This is a great housing message, unlike Joe Biden, who didn't even know that the housing market existed, didn't even know Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac existed. We now have a president who is laser-focused on this. He's reversing the damage that Biden did.
It's going to take some -- take some time, but we're going to get it done and stay tuned for Davos. Davos is going to be pretty exciting.
Sir, what do you tell young Americans who they want to achieve the American dream, which is homeownership for a lot of people, but were just -- or feel like they simply can't pay that six percent mortgage, they think prices are too high for homes? What do you tell them, be patient or what do you tell them?
Well, I think help is coming and the good news is that President Trump is a builder. He is somebody who understands real estate, understands mortgage rates. We want to keep home prices high, but we want to make sure that homes are affordable, and that is only something that a president who understands real estate can do. He really understands real estate.
When you're talking to him about ideas about real estate, this is a guy who fundamentally gets home prices, gets real estate. So help is on the way. And the good news is, in his first term, people could afford a home. The last four years have been a disaster, but he's fully engaged on this issue and his commitment with the $200 billion bond purchase yesterday cannot be understated.
I mean, we're already seeing prints in the five percent range for mortgages. So you combine that with the banning of institutional home buying, boy, this is a completely different housing market than, certainly, a year ago, but even a week or two ago.
Mr. Pulte -- there are some things, Mr. Pulte -- [Inaudible] homes right now that are -- you know, they're paying -- they bought them a few years ago at two and a half, three percent interest, sitting on those real low mortgage rates. They don't want to move. How big a challenge is that, to kind of open up that glut, if you will, of homes, people sitting in homes because they're kind of -- you know, handcuffed in these very low rates, like, how do you get those to open up?
Well, it's an issue and it's an issue because Joe Biden let inflation run out of control and when inflation runs out of control, interest rates go up. And when interest rates go up, mortgage rates go up. And so this is really an unwinding of the Biden policies. And the good news is we're starting to see some real tangible benefits.
You know, we have a good scorecard. When -- when President Trump came into office, he crushed inflation and mortgage rates went from seven percent down to the five percent range, five percent, meaning there's a five handle now on the mortgage rate. So we'll see what happens. We need to get a fed chair in there.
That's the real key to this whole sauce here, is that we need to get a fed chair. But in the meantime, the administration is focused on doing everything we can, including the banning of institutional home buying, and I think it's going to have a -- have an effect.
Mr. Pulte, in addition to things that the president can do by executive action, you also need Congressional action on certain types of legislation as it relates to the housing market. Give me an idea about some of the things that we can expect this year, as far as legislation is concerned from Congress, benefiting the housing market.
Well, I think the housing market is going to benefit from the Senate and from the House. I was with the Financial Services Committee last night. They're very eager to do something. I was just talking to a couple of Senators in there who are, you know, jumping up and down, very excited about passing this institutional homeownership ban.
So there's great inertia and it's led by the president. And I think, you know, these two announcements this week coupled with the Davos announcements are really going to set the path for housing affordability in this next year.
When will the $200 billion of mortgages buy be completed?
I'm not going to say when we're going to complete them by, but I'll say this, we are laser-focused on it. We had a meeting this morning. We are in the market. And um, you know, the mortgage bond market is safer and sounder than ever before.
How likely is it, sir -- there's a proposal -- I'm sorry. Thanks for standing out here and getting wet. I don't want to see you catch your death here, but you've got the [Inaudible] going.
That's all right.
But the ban on -- or this proposal to ban corporations from buying single family homes, how likely is that to happen? And what would that do?
I think it's very likely to happen. I think the president has set it in motion and unlike Pocahontas and these other people have talked about, oh, the big bad institutions, President Trump is actually somebody who gets something done. And he wants to keep home prices high, but homes should be for places where people live in, they shouldn't be for where homes go to die on corporate balance sheets.
They should be someplace where people and God and nature intended for people to live in homes, not corporations. So we finally have a president that's going to get something done and President Trump is laser-focused on it. I'm very confident that he'll take executive action and then follow it up with legislative action.
Should we expect that order by the end of the month? And are there any details you can share?
I defer to you on the president on when he's going to do that.
Sir, is there a role for your agency in fixing the problem with rebuilding LA and those neighborhoods wiped out by the fires?
We're looking at a lot of different options. You know, Fannie and Freddie have been to neglected assets for so long. And it's hard to believe because Fannie and Freddie have $9 trillion in assets. Can you believe that? And until we came on the spot, some people didn't even know these companies existed. They just thought that these were, you know, crappy companies from the bankruptcy.
President Trump has totally rectified that Fannie and Freddie situation. He's taken them. They wanted to sell -- they tried to get President Trump to sell the companies, if you can believe it, for $100 billion. We just did a $200 billion -- or we're in the process of doing a $200 billion mortgage bond buyback.
So my whole point is that we are looking at using Fannie and Freddie in a way to benefit the American people we never have, including but not limited to what's going on in California.
Thank you.
Stay tuned. It could be pretty interesting. You know, we do a lot of loans in California.
Do you think there's any fraud there?
Stay tuned.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Yeah. Anything else? Thank you, guys. Thanks, guys.
Stay dry. Stay dry. It's too late for that.
See ya.
Thank you.