I agree that this is mostly a publicity stunt to make the politicians look like they are trying to help.
If true, few people will qualify for the freeze, financial stocks will take a beating, and it will just make loans harder to get for the rest of the buyers out there. More money for the FBs = less money for the rest of us. Either way it will affect demand for homes in a negative way. Also, those who own the paper that hold these loans will be walking away and never returning. Like mentioned above, this won’t do anything for the already insanely high amounts of homes for sale, except by making qualifying even harder.
Personally I feel that it will have little to zero effect on the currently crashing RE market.(especially in way overpriced socal)