Freddie Mac CEO fired as FHFA shakeups continue
Mike Hutchins, an economist, author and Freddie Mac exec since 2013, steps into the interim CEO role for the second time in a year after Diana Reid is let go.
Just days into the job as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte continues to shake up leadership at Freddie Mac, a central player in the nation's mortgage market.
On Friday, Freddie Mac President Mike Hutchins was named interim CEO of the organization, after CEO Diana Reid was fired the day before, Bloomberg News reported. Hutchins, who joined Freddie Mac in 2013, spent much of 2024 in the temporary CEO role before being replaced by Reid, who was named CEO in September. He is an economist and author of "Irreconcilable Politics," a book about making shared decisions on divisive topics.
Thursday was a busy day, with the FHFA chief operating officer and human resources director getting put on leave in addition to "dozens of other agency employees," Politico reported.
Earlier this week, Pulte also appointed himself as board chair of Freddie Mac as well as Fannie Mae, ousting 14 board members and adding seven new ones, including a DOGE-affiliated engineer and Elon Musk ally who quit the next day.
Neither Fannie nor Freddie makes loans directly. Instead, they buy mortgages from lenders, and bundle and sell them to investors to support the flow of money in the housing finance system. The Trump administration has expressed a desire to take the entities private, a move that could "sow chaos in the markets" if not handled carefully, The Washington Post reported.
More DC and government news
New home for HUD? Secretary Scott Turner said he wants to move the Department of Housing and Urban Development out of its current home, a striking Brutalist building hailed as a "handsome, functional structure" by some but described as "the ugliest building in D.C." by Turner.
"I fully support Secretary Turner's desire to exit a building with significant deferred liabilities in favor of a more appropriately sized, better equipped, and maintained space that will enable the HUD workforce to fulfill HUD's important mission," said Michael Peters, commissioner of the General Service Administration's Public Buildings Service.
D.C. housing market update: Listings are on the rise in the Washington, D.C., region, according to the latest from Bright MLS, and so is buyer interest, with pending contracts up 7.4% versus the previous week and up 1.5% compared to the same time last year.