What is the Office Of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO)?
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) is a defunct regulatory body that ensured the financial safety of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
How Does the Office Of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) Work?
Started in 1922 after the passage of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act, the OFHEO became part of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in 2008 when President Barack Obama signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. In that change, the OFHEO staff combined with the staffs of the Federal Housing Finance Board.
OFHEO set the size limits for conforming loans, which are loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could purchase from banks (thereby giving the banks more money to lend).
Why Does the Office Of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) Matter?
The goal of the OFHEO was to ensure a stable and liquid housing market by making sure that the federal government's primary catalysts of the market -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- were financially sound.
