Modestly good. Agency buying of home equity loans would mean more consistency and somewhat lower costs over time, since well-qualified homeowners can already reach their equity today. The mechanics first: - A home equity loan is a closed-end second mortgage: a lump sum at a fixed rate, paid down on a set schedule. - A HELOC is a revolving line you draw against as needed, usually at a variable rate tied to an index like Prime. Both sit behind your first mortgage and let you tap equity without disturbing that first loan. If Fannie or Freddie standardized second-mortgage guidelines and started buying these loans, pricing would likely improve over time, because a standardized product with a ready secondary-market buyer tends to price better than a patchwork of lender-specific programs. Plenty of lenders already offer both products, just with guidelines that vary shop to shop, so this is a standardization and cost story rather than new access. Whether the market needs it is debatable. Well-qualified homeowners already have workable paths to their equity through existing seconds and HELOCs, so the upside of agency involvement is smoothing out inconsistency and cost across lenders. When you actually shop, confirm current second-mortgage guidelines, because they differ meaningfully by lender.