(Mark Your Calendars. The 11th Annual RealShare Washington, DC convenes at the Ritz Carlton, June 1.)

McLEAN, VA-A new CEO for Freddie Mac has been selected and will be formally announced shortly, according to several published accounts. That person is Donald Layton, 62, the former CEO of E*Trade Financial Corp. He had been cited as one of three people on a short list by the Wall Street Journal last month.

If accurate, Layton will assume the GSE helm when Charles E. "Ed" Haldeman, Jr. steps down. Haldeman announced he was leaving about half a year ago. A spokeswoman for Freddie Mac declined to comment on the reports.

Layton’s name is not a surprise, but news that the GSE has settled on a head--and one with significant business experience--is welcome to the multifamily finance community. “It is great news that somebody has been identified and this person has apparently accepted the role,” Willy Walker, chairman, president and CEO of Walker & Dunlop, tells GlobeSt.com. “He was a successful executive in an evolving industry--online brokerage--and that says he is able to adapt to new situations easily.”

Clearly, a CEO who scores high in adaptive response skills is a plus for the GSE, given the vast uncertainty about its future. At one point, it seemed all but certain the GSEs would be privatized, possibly before the presidential election. As the GSEs continue to recover, though, it may be that Washington decides it doesn’t want to summon the will to make the hard decisions about housing financing.

One sign that the GSEs are on the mend: Fannie Mae has just reported a $2.7 billion Q1 profit. That compares to a net loss of $6.5 billion in the first quarter of 2011 and a net loss of $2.4 billion in Q4 of 2011. The GSE cited lower credit-related expenses resulting from a less significant decline in home prices as one of the reasons.

More significantly, Fannie said it will not need an infusion of taxpayer funds this quarter. “The company’s comprehensive income of $3.1 billion in the first quarter of 2012 is sufficient to pay the first-quarter dividend of $2.8 billion,” it said in its release—the first time it has been able to make this claim since 2008.

Freddie Mac, unfortunately, has not reached that point. Last week the GSE requested $19 million in additional federal aid after posting less-than-stellar earnings. “It is difficult to say what will happen with Freddie Mac,” Ari Firoozabadi, president of the Greysteel Co., a locally based boutique investment sales firm, tells GlobeSt.com, “but most believe that there will be consolidation and privatization of the two quasi-government entities, and it is a matter of when--not if.”

Layton will be well suited to that process, Firoozabadi says: “Appointed by the Treasury as an outside director to assist in the AIG workout, he has the relationships, confidence and leadership to work out the Freddie Mac situation.”