Mortgage financing giant Freddie Mac announced a new plan to tackle the affordable housing crisis by financing more rural and manufactured housing and preserving more affordable housing for home buyers and renters across the country. Its Duty to Serve plan will include increasing loan purchases in such underserved markets.
Freddie says it will team with the mortgage industry, community nonprofits, organizations, and government officials to expand its products and consumer education to provide more aid to very low, low, and moderate-income households.
“Freddie Mac is uniquely suited to tackle some of America’s most persistent housing problems, and we look forward to deepening this work,” says David D. Leopold, vice president of targeted affordable sales & investments at Freddie Mac Multifamily.
Freddie Mac says its plan involves developing a new renovation mortgage product to help rehabilitate some of the nation’s aging housing stock. It also plans to increase liquidity for manufactured housing loan originators by purchasing loans titled as real property and personal property. Also, officials say they plan to support energy efficiency initiatives and shared equity programs to help further preserve home affordability.
Nearly 20 million households spend more than half of their income on housing, according to Freddie Mac. Further, inventories of bottom- and mid-valued homes shrank by more than 38 percent between 2010 and 2015. Freddie Mac says there are only 7.4 million affordable rental units to serve 11.4 million households living on very low incomes.
“Addressing the affordability crisis today will benefit our country for decades to come,” says Danny Gardner, Freddie Mac’s vice president of single-family affordable lending and access to credit.
Learn more details about
Freddie Mac’s Duty to Serve program.
Source: Freddie Mac
