Subsidization as motor to residential mortgage securitization in the US

Abstract

Residential mortgage securitization on the secondary mortgage market in the United States has grown enormously since 1970. This contribution describes the growth, especially the growth of the large special circuit housing finance system within the secondary mortgage market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at the heart of it. Different housing finance systems are introduced first in order to position the system of securitization. The technicalities of securitization are then briefly covered, before the focus shifts to the development of residential mortgage securitization in the United States. The reasons for expansion of the secondary mortgage market are traced, and especially of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the benefits they offer to homeowners and the buyers of securities. The success of securitization by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac does not seem to be based on a miracle of competition in the housing finance market, but largely on regulation and subsidization of these organizations. Nowadays, the question has become whether the undesired effects of this large part of the housing finance market outbalance the desired effects.