Bill Pulte, CEO of private equity firm Pulte Capital Partners, has been nominated to be the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
President Donald Trump announced the nomination on his Truth Social account.
“Bill needs no formal introduction to the Great Citizens of our Country, because they have seen, and many have experienced, his philanthropy firsthand,” he wrote.
Pending Senate confirmation, Pulte will oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the Trump administration intends to privatize.
The government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have been under government conservatorship since 2008 when the financial crisis caused massive losses as many homeowners defaulted on their mortgages, resulting in the two GSEs suffering huge losses. The FHFA took control of Fannie and Freddie as their “conservator” to ensure stability.
PulteGroup’s legal battle
Known as a businessman and philanthropist, Pulte was formerly the director of PulteGroup, Inc., a public real estate development company started by his grandfather, William J. Pulte, who died in 2018. Pulte was appointed to the company’s board of directors by his grandfather and sat on the board until 2020.
In April 2024, PulteGroup notably got involved in the commission lawsuits as an objector to settlement agreements struck by the National Association of REALTORS® and big brokerages.
PulteGroup removed itself from the settlement class, filing an objection citing insufficient information to determine the necessary recovery amount. The company argued that it had not received adequate notice of the settlements or vital details, including the class size and the claim administrator’s evaluations for distributing settlement funds.
“Pulte has not seen any information about class size, expected claim rate or the claim administrator’s evaluations in dividing up settlement funds. Most of this information typically would be provided in a Plan of Allocation, a document routinely provided before the opt-out date,” read the court filing submitted on April 12, 2024.
Keller Williams settled for $70 million, and Anywhere Real Estate and RE/MAX collectively settled for $138.5 million—funds to be distributed to qualifying settlement class members “who submit an approved claim form.”
PulteGroup argued that their exclusion from the notification process was problematic. They also pointed out that submitting thousands of hand-filled claim forms would be unnecessarily burdensome and inefficient.
As the third-largest homebuilder in the U.S. that would need to submit thousands of hand-filled claim forms, PulteGroup argued that it was “a needless and time-consuming complication.”
Since PulteGroup never received notice of the settlements through “any approved mechanisms,” it brought to question how individual builders, who might lack legal counsel, would be treated.
“If Pulte, with thousands of claims, did not receive direct notice of settlement, individual home sellers with many fewer sales likely did not receive notice either. Those individual home sellers may also lack legal counsel and would be less likely to learn about their class membership through the news,” read the filing.
Judge Stephen R. Bough of the Western District of Missouri overruled PulteGroup’s objection, citing that companies do not need to include a detailed allocation formula in class notice or formulate one before final settlement approval, according to a court document filed Nov. 27, 2024. Further, the objection did not raise any due process concerns, and the claim that there was no way to send bulk claims was “meritless.”
PulteGroup did not respond to RISMedia’s request for comment.
There have been other legal battles and controversies at PulteGroup over the years.
In 2022, PulteGroup fired Brandon Jones, who was set to become the next CEO of the company, over a lawsuit started by Pulte alleging harassment on Twitter (now known as X). With various aliases, tweets by Jones accused his family of arson, elder abuse and more.
In 2016, Pulte’s grandfather, who at the time was no longer chairman but was still the largest shareholder, wrote a letter making various allegations and attacks against PulteGroup. During a meeting, the then 83-year-old Mr. Pulte demanded that CEO Richard J. Dugas Jr. immediately announce plans to retire or “there would be war,” according to a letter to shareholders.
The criticisms stemmed from the company’s poor stock price and its move to Atlanta from Michigan in 2014. Dugas resigned a year later. Because of this, the board of directors did not proceed with the elder Pulte’s pick for the next director, Jim Grosfeld.
FHFA leadership and policy implications
During his first term, in 2019, Trump released his Housing Reform Plan, which outlined his plan to:
- End the conservatorship for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
- Promote private sector competition in the housing finance system
- Maintain the 30-year fixed mortgage
- Protect taxpayers from exposure to future bailouts
If confirmed, Pulte will likely not be the deciding power in privatizing the GSEs. The onus is on the director of the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Secretary of the Treasury, according to Donald H. Layton, former CEO of Freddie Mac who has written extensively about the GSEs and the long-running conservatorship. Kevin Hassett has been nominated as the NEC director, and Scott Bessent was nominated for the Treasury secretary position.
The FHFA was formerly independent until a June 2021 Supreme Court ruling making the FHFA subject to the control of the presidential administration.
Former FHFA Director Sandra Thompson, who was sworn in on June 22, 2022, left her role on January 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration.
Industry reactions to Pulte’s nomination
Across the housing and lending industries, organizations have released statements on Pulte’s nomination—mostly supportive.
Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO Bob Broeksmit congratulated Pulte on his nomination and shared his thoughts on the privatization of the GSEs.
“The conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs) was never intended to be permanent,” he wrote. “MBA stands ready to work with the Administration and Congress to ensure that the transition to a post-conservatorship era for the GSEs is done the right way, including the critical step that Congress approves an explicit federal backstop for the GSEs’ mortgage-backed securities, to prevent severe market disruptions.”
Carl Harris, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder from Wichita, Kansas, said the NAHB looks forward to working with Pulte.
“As a businessman and philanthropist with strong ties to the home building industry, Pulte understands the vital need to ensure that builders and developers have access to finance new housing and that consumers can readily obtain affordable mortgage credit,” he said.
Seth Appleton, president of the U.S. Mortgage Insurers (USMI), shared similar sentiments in his released statement.
“As a businessman and philanthropist, Pulte firmly understands the importance of housing and the role of private capital in the housing finance system,” he wrote. “Once confirmed, USMI looks forward to working with Pulte to prudently ensure access to affordable mortgage credit for first-time buyers while protecting taxpayers from risk and promoting safety and soundness in the housing finance system.”
Ryan Donovan, president and CEO of the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks, said he looks forward to working with Pulte and expressed gratitude for Trump’s quick nomination in his statement.
“Mr. Pulte has experience in the capital markets and home building and has demonstrated commitment to community development—all of which are of primary importance to the FHLBank System, which for nearly a century has been (a) crucial component of the nation’s housing finance system and stands today as the largest source of private capital support for affordable housing initiatives in the country,” he wrote.
National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) Executive Vice President Nikitra Bailey addressed the nation’s housing crisis in her statement as well as Trump’s housing policies during his previous administration. Bailey also offered a less positive assessment of the plan to end the GSEs conservatorship.
“NFHA urges Mr. Pulte, if confirmed, to commit to upholding the agency’s critical missions to foster equitable and sustainable access to homeownership and rental housing and ensuring housing policies promote fair access to opportunity for everyone,” she wrote. “Privatizing the financial giants’ profits only to have to rescue them from future downturns is reckless and will drive up the cost of the coveted 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, which has resulted in homeownership becoming attainable for millions of everyday people throughout the nation.”
RISMedia contacted the National Low Income Housing Coalition, but they declined to comment on the nomination.