22 Oct step 3. Why performed Fannie and you may Freddie need an excellent taxpayer bailout?
Fannie and Freddie failed when you look at the large part while they generated crappy business decisions and you may kept diminished financial support. Plus, in lieu of most private financing organizations, Fannie and you will Freddie got just one profession-domestic home loan financing-which means did not have almost every other sourced elements of income to pay whenever home values began to fall.
Within the 2008 Fannie and you can Freddie forgotten a mixed $47 billion within solitary-friends home loan businesses, pressuring the firms to help you look deep to their capital supplies. Almost 50 % of the individuals losings came from Alt-A financial obligation, despite those people financing accounting for eleven per cent of companies' total providers. But the individuals loss have been only the birth: Between , Fannie and Freddie would lose a combined $265 billion, more than 60 percent of which are attributable to risky things available in 2006 and you will 2007.