Former FHA Commissioner: Affordable Housing Goals NOT the Reason for GSE Subprime Problems and Failure.

Writing in the National Review, conservative John Weicher provides the details HERE:

"The GSEs began buying subprime mortgage-backed securities (MBS) heavily in 2002. Their purchases of sub-prime MBS doubled between 2002 and 2003, and doubled again in 2004 — from $38 billion to $81 billion to $176 billion. All this happened before the housing goals were changed in 2005.

After the new goals went into effect, their subprime MBS purchases actually declined. Their share of the subprime MBS market followed the same pattern: It went up before the goals were changed, and dropped afterward. The GSEs were buying half of all subprime MBS in 2003, and only 20 percent by 2006. Essentially, what happened is that the market for subprime MBS took off in the early years of the decade, and the GSEs went with the market for a few years, then began pulling back."