Michael A. Stegman, a housing and domestic policy director at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will reportedly be named as a housing finance policy counselor for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed "senior Treasury official," reports that Stegman's appointment is a signal that the Obama administration will be putting a greater emphasis on addressing housing issues in 2012. In his new role, Stegman will reportedly be responsible for coordinating the administration's housing policies, including the long-stalled issue of reforming the government-sponsored enterprises.

Stegman served as an assistant secretary for policy research in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration before joining the MacArthur Foundation in 2005. Stegman has also been an advocate for de-emphasizing homeownership in favor of renting - at a Treasury Department conference in August, he stated that housing finance reform cannot be successfully implemented, as the federal government fails to acknowledge "the market distortions caused by the government's disproportionate support of homeownership over renting."