Today, the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA, Fannie Mae), announced the abandonment of their horribly grotesque "declining market policy."  As reported in Inman News, Fannie Mae will now require a minimum downpayment of 3%.  This ends a several month period of time during which a secret formula was applied to properties, deeming most in a "declining market."

One has to give credit to Charles MacMillan, President-Elect of the National Association of Realtors®,  for his persuasiveness in his visit to FNMA a couple of weeks ago.  He also visited Freddie Mac (FHLMC).  We expect Freddie to issue a similar statement soon, although Freddie was not as bad as Fannie with regard to transparency of policy.  The Colonel and his secret recipe were far less secret than Fannie's guidelines.

As I leave Washington on Saturday, I am excited about the progress we have made in persuading our representatives in Congress of the need to address the housing challenge.  There is massive improvement in the market just over the horizon.