Bills to curb Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might limit loans to minorities.
Stuart Gabriel, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern Californiacolor>, said that even if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were downsized, private lenders would aggressively go after Latinos and other underrepresented home buyers.
"There's so much pure market incentive," Gabriel said. "The real potential for homeownership gains both in California and the U.S. overall is in the minority communities ... and they are increasingly on the radar screens of lenders."
He said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have basically been operating under two objectives that can be in conflict: They're supposed be profitable and maximize shareholder returns, and they are supposed to promote government housing policy objectives.
"There are trade-offs associated with those goals, and the reaction we're seeing on Capitol Hill today and in the larger community suggests they have strayed too far in the profit-seeking objective," Gabriel said.