Housing Sector Hangs by a Thread Despite Rock-Bottom Rates

July 6, 2010 — -- Interest rates for homebuyers are lower than at any time since the Eisenhower era and home prices in many regions have fallen drastically.

Buyers who qualified for the federal tax credit program that ended in April, meanwhile, were given extra time, through the end of September, to close on their homes.

And yet, home sales are in decline. Existing home sales fell 2.2 percent in May compared to the prior month, the National Association of Realtors said in June. Pending home sales -- contracts signed but not closed -- dropped 30 percent in May, the NAR said July 1.

As perplexing and disturbing as this economic brainteaser may seem, the housing sector would be in even worse shape if not for those twin government sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both in government conservatorship and bleeding assets.

Such a scenario, a housing market propped up by Fannie and Freddie, several economic experts admit glumly, is akin to running a power plant on an auxiliary generator that is jumper-cabled to a car running on fumes.

"As bad as the housing price situation is, it'd be even worse if not for the cheap mortgage financing enabled by Fannie and Freddie, as scary as that sounds," said Dan Alpert, managing partner of Westwood Capital LLC, a New York-based investment bank.

Beleaguered as they may be, Fannie and Freddie still are pumping liquidity into a near-bone-dry mortgage loan market, primarily by converting pools of loans into mortgage-backed securities, and by guarantying such securities.

Both Freddie and Fannie, having failed two summers ago, are 79.9 percent owned by the U.S. government, which means that the remaining 20.1 percent is still owned by the investing public.

However, shares of both are trading well under $1. In fact, $1 would be enough to buy a share of each and still have some spare change.

Both Fannie and Freddie are about to become de-listed by the New York Stock Exchange, which has rules about companies trading below $1 for an extended period of time. So starting July 8 these once mighty enterprises will trade alongside penny stocks on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, a place where many companies go to die.