Asking Fannie and Freddie whether to rent or buy

This final note today, which comes with a shout out to our friends at Planet Money. Ever wonder why the American real estate market is so messed up?

Here’s one: Fannie Mae has a calculator on its website that helps people decide whether it makes sense to rent a place or to buy a house. You enter your data, it spits out the answer. Which is great, except for this: Until just recently, the calculator assumed home prices would never go down.

It’s been fixed.