At the moment, the market for existing homes is partly frozen because people who have 3 percent mortgage loans don’t want to give them up for 7 percent loans on new homes. Making mortgages portable sounds unrealistic. After all, mortgages are tied by contract to particular pieces of property. “We’re getting this question a lot, even from our own members,” Mike Fratantoni, the group’s chief economist, told me. Nevertheless, he said he couldn’t imagine that owners of securitized loans would go along with the idea.

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Persons: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, “ We’re, ” Mike Fratantoni, there’s Organizations: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Mortgage Bankers Association