The Future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

A housing sector without Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a possibility, Edward J. DeMarco, director of Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), told CNBC Thursday.

Demarco said another future scenario might involve Fannie and Freddie remaining in business, but without dependence on the federal government.

But, he cautioned, success could happen only if an infrastructure is in place that allows private firms to re-enter what is a $10 trillion mortgage market.

Either scenario is possible, said DeMarco, but both “need appropriate a transition. Our housing market is still quite fragile.”

“We cannot flip that switch tomorrow and expect to turn it over to the private sector, because the plumbing is not there,” he said.

To date, taxpayers have been are on the hook for some $145 billion in lossesconnected to the troubled housingmarket. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that figure could balloon to $400 billion, and some experts have even put a $1 trillion price tag on those taxpayer-responsible costs.

DeMarco acknowledged that there will be more losses, but said that some of the figures being bandied about are “extreme.”