Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte has ratcheted up his criticism of Jerome Powell by calling on Congress to “immediately” investigate the Federal Reserve chairman.
In a statement, Pulte called for a congressional investigation of “Chairman Jerome Powell, his political bias, and his deceptive Senate testimony, which is enough to be removed ‘for cause.’ Jerome Powell’s $2.5B in capitalizations of Building Renovation Scandal stinks to high heaven, and he lied when asked about the specifics before Congress. This is nothing short of malfeasance and is worthy of ‘for cause.’”
Pulte’s “Building Renovation Scandal” refers to comments made by Powell before a recent Senate hearing regarding repairs and upgrades to the central bank’s headquarters. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) compared the renovations to the “Palace of Versailles,” which Powell refuted.
Pulte has repeatedly echoed President Trump’s hostile and insulting comments regarding Powell’s intellect and job performance, going so far as to demand Powell’s resignation. To date, Powell has never publicly acknowledged Pulte’s remarks.
Photo: Thomas Hawk / Flickr Creative Commons
Get rid of the bum
Who Pulte? He’s the one that should go. He has a vested interest in rates going down…his family’s stake in Pulte Homes so of course, he needs mortgage rates to go back down so sales will stay up. And privatizing Fannie/Freddie is his objective for all of his and Trump’s rich buddies.
Exactly. Pulte is dying for any reason to sell their product. They need to drop the price.
He’s doing what he is supposed too. You should have said that when rates were sitting in the low 3s for years. Pulte needs to go.
Pulte is just a shill for Trump. Powell is correct to wait to see how tariffs are going to impact inflation before adjusting rates.
If Mr. Pulte really cared about the American people and our economy he should call out the chaos and chaotic behavior of his friends in the White House. But for the non-sense TACOS strategy, the interest rates would have been cut 2-3 times already. Let’s Make America Smart Again (MASA)!!!
Pulte is not the problem here. Jerome Powell lowered rates in the prior administration when inflation was much higher, yet doesn’t want to lower rates now because of a chance of tariffs causing inflation. This is clearly a political issue and the fed wants to defy and hurt Trump. Meanwhile many middle class families who would like to sell and buy can’t afford the higher payments.
Fire Powell now!!
When it comes to buying and selling real estate in a tight market such as this, it’s only theoretical that that it will lower costs. The cost of a mortgage also goes down for your competition also seeking a home. Therefore the demand pushes the price even higher. And those seeking the same homes you can then afford with the lower rates could also now afford them The winner is the seller so long as they don’t then have to replace their sold home with another.
I totally agree. When the stimulus money was circulating and rates were around 3 to 3.5%, demand was through the roof. There were lines a mile long of buyers waiting to place a bid on a home, construction time increased significantly, so I couldn’t wait for the market to get back to normal. If rates are going to decrease I encourage the Fed to do it in moderation to avoid throwing the market out of balance.
Abolish the Federal Reserve now. It’s an unconstitutional entity that should not be setting interest rates for the US economy. The interest rates should have been lowered already but the Fed historically helps the Left. Why else would they have left interest rates in the 3’s when the Bribem administration had the country in a verifiable recession? They just changed the definition of a recession!!
In case you didn’t notice…we, in the real estate biz, all benefit when rates are lowered.
Real Estate drives the economy and creates many jobs. It also helps first time buyers achieve the dream of home ownership!!! There are many home owners that want to sell their homes and want to buy again, but they don’t want to give up the lower interest rates for the current higher rates.
Pulte needs to go. He’s just as self serving as Trump is. They are looking for any reason to get rid of Powell. We are in the real estate business but not to the detriment of the economy. Powell is right to wait. Inflation is already sky high.
It’s not just Powell, a lot of people are waiting to see when & how tariffs effect pricing before they make moves in different ways.. We’ve been hearing so many possibilities, along with delays and changes, this is just all so ridiculous.. Our leadership should of waited for a clear path before letting this cat out of the bag and people wouldn’t be as concerned if the unknown, plus we would of likely had rate cuts
Realtors need the interest rates to go down! So do buyers & contractors & all the other folks who will benefit from stimulating the economy. Sleepy Joe Crew had the rates artificially low for far too long. That created disparity & difficulty. Now look at things. I’m glad we have Trump.
Trump is the only one who has a brain, and business acumen that can fix the financial mess that the ignorant Dems left us in. All of the frivolous/ridiculous spending that they did helped other countries, meanwhile our citizens are in need and the left doesn’t seem to care. My real estate business is hurting and most of my clients cannot afford a home due to the rates. Current homeowners don’t want to lose their good rate only to have to trade down which is not ideal. The Federal Reserve is a joke and needs to be abolished, DrekiG is correct. Powell is corrupt just like most of the Dems whose secrets will be revealed either in this life or the next. They will not get away with their thievery forever.
2020 and 2021 rates were in the 2.96% people and pets wearing face mask afraid to die, meanwhile BlackRock and heavy-duty investors buying cheap. like free money.
So the guy tied to one of the largest residential construction firms in the country thinks interest rates should drop. Who could have seen that coming? When rates were at approx 3% during the pandemic, housing prices went ballistic. Newton’s law: for every action, there is an equal & opposite reaction. Same principle here. If there were a “significant” rate reduction, housing prices (including Pulte’s) would soar again. I don’t see any increase in the amount of affordable housing.
A completely side note: I have yet to see anyone acknowledge that every square foot of impermeable surface (roofs, walks, drives) increases the potential size of the flood plain
and increases in flood insurance and those rates are already almost prohibitive. BOHICA “middle class”.