WASHINGTON, DC-Fannie Mae has posted a $13.1 billion loss in Q1, necessitating a request for $8.4 billion in additional funds from the federal government. It is widely expected that Fannie Mae’s loss, coupled with Freddie Mac’s loss last week of $8 billion--necessitating a $10.6-billion government infusion of capital--is going to lend credence to calls that the GSEs be spun off from the government to exist on their own. Three Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have proposed an amendment to the financial reform bill that would require the government to end the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years after the bill becomes law.

The fate of that amendment is unclear, caught up in a welter of politics and the inevitable give-and-take that is part of the legislative process--especially in a bill as large as the financial reform legislation.

There is some small measure of hope in Fannie’s earnings, though, LaFonte Nesbitt, a partner in Holland & Knight’s Real Estate Section tells GlobeSt.com. "Obviously everyone connected with housing finance--single family and multifamily--and the taxpayers generally, are waiting for Fannie and Freddie to return to profitability or at least break-even. The somewhat promising news is that Fannie's loss for the first quarter of 2010 was less than half its loss in the first quarter of 2009."

Nesbitt adds that he doesn’t foresee any immediate impact on Fannie Mae's multifamily lending activities--especially considering that their multifamily portfolios, while not as pristine as they once were, are still very healthy in terms of delinquencies and defaults. The GSE losses, he notes, "are driven by their single family portfolios."