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Sept. 5, 2014 – CNBC highlighted Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan's downgrading of his forecast for the housing market in a report Wednesday.

Duncan gave NAFCU Annual Conference attendees his economic forecast this July in Las Vegas. On CNBC, he spoke to the network about why he has now downgraded his housing recovery forecast: "We concluded that people are too optimistic about whether or not 2015 is going to be a breakout year for housing."

Duncan lowered his single-family housing start forecast for 2015 by 14.2 percent – from 913,000 to 783,000. He also lowered his new-home sales forecast by 13.7 percent from 606,000 to 523,000, and his existing homes sales and mortgage originations forecasts by around 2 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

The network also cited banking analyst Dick Bove's report about the potential for a mortgage crisis hitting by the wintertime, in which long-term financing and fixed interest rates will be "endangered." Bove is the vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets.

Bove was quoted as saying, "This means there will be less money available to fund housing, and the terms of the available funds will be considerably more onerous than what was available under 30-year, fixed-rate loans. This means higher monthly payments and lower housing prices. It means a crisis in the mortgage markets – and the economy."

Bove was somewhat pessimistic about the impact of the current draft plan for reforming the housing finance system, noting that the end of Fannie and Freddie and assignment of more losses to private capital would discourage investors.

NAFCU continues to push for a housing finance reform plan that will guarantee credit unions access to the secondary mortgage market, and fair pricing based on loan quality instead of volume.