September 15, 2008
...Gary Painter, associate professor in the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning and Development, noted that multifamily business has been profitable and important to the GSEs. The government takeover and focus on restructuring might mean they won't be able to lend as much for a few months, but he said it's too early to tell because this has never happened before.
"My sense is they're going to focus more on the high-credit borrowers, go back to their core business and make sure that's stable," Painter said. "They might curtail some of their purchases of Alt-A [residential] mortgages and possibly multifamily."...