Bill Pulte, a financier and social media personality with strong Michigan ties, has been confirmed to lead a federal housing finance regulator.

Just after 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted 56-43 to confirm Pulte’s nomination to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the federal agency that regulates the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which largely purchase and securitize mortgages from lenders post-closing, providing liquidity to the private market.

A handful of Democrats voted in favor of Pulte’s confirmation, including U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.

Pulte, 36, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the agency in January, expressed gratitude to the second-term president for the opportunity to take on the role. Pulte said that he “looks forward to helping out Michiganders as much as possible.”

“We’re going to work on behalf of President Trump to restore the American dream for as many Michiganders as possible,” Pulte told Crain’s in a brief phone interview Thursday afternoon following his confirmation.

Specifically, Pulte said he’d be looking at ways to make the GSEs operate more efficiently and pointed to opportunities to test various pilot programs as well as potentially eliminating certain, unspecified closing costs for homebuyers.

Privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has reportedly been a priority of the Trump administration. Pulte declined to go into specifics on where such an action may stand, but said that “if there were to be an exit from (government) conservatorship, we need to be sure there’s no upward pressure on mortgage rates.”

The new FHFA director was born and raised in Florida, but has strong business and familial ties to the Southeast Michigan region, and still owns a home in Cheboygan County in the northern lower peninsula, he told Crain’s.

Pulte is the grandson of William J. Pulte, who founded PulteGroup Inc. in Michigan and turned it into one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S. The elder Pulte died in 2018. PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM) had been based in Bloomfield Hills until 2014, when it completed a move to Atlanta, Ga., where it is currently headquartered.

The younger Pulte also served on the company’s board of directors for a time.

Bill Pulte is an unconventional choice to lead the FHFA given his lack of experience in the federal government. But Bill Pulte fits Trump’s template as a loyalist with a nontraditional background and a willingness to brawl with opponents. More recently, Bill Pulte has been a fixture at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where he is often seen around Trump and other prominent figures.

Mat Ishbia, CEO of Pontiac-based United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), the nation’s largest mortgage lender, has spoken favorably of Bill Pulte’s nomination to lead the FHFA.

Bill Pulte has also been involved in various civic efforts around metro Detroit. In particular, blight removal efforts; first starting in the city of Detroit, clearing blocks of rundown homes around the Eastern Market area.

Then, after a tussle with what was then the fledgling administration of Mayor Mike Duggan, Bill Pulte, with the backing of the late Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, took his blight removal efforts to Pontiac, the county seat.

— Crain’s reporter Kirk Pinho and Bloomberg contributed to this report.