Freddie Mac

HUD and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance their enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. The MOU allows HUD and FHFA to enforce fair housing and fair lending requirements by promoting information sharing, coordination on investigations, compliance reviews and the ongoing monitoring of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will offer COVID-19 forbearance to qualifying multifamily property owners through June 30.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced the authorization of more than $1 billion in affordable housing allocations to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest disbursement in history. HUD’s National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) will receive $711 million and the Department of the Treasury’s Capital Magnet Fund (CMF) will receive $383 million.

Freddie Mac released a white paper Dec. 10 that found LIHTC supports 40.1 percent of the multifamily housing market in rural Persistent Poverty Counties (PPCs) – a rate that is more than three times greater than the national average and one and a half times greater than all rural areas.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that the 2021 multifamily loan purchase caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will be $70 billion for each Enterprise. NH&RA applauds the increased caps and looking forward to working with FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure sufficient liquidity in the multifamily mortgage market during this economic downturn.

Don Layton authored a new paper with Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, What Should We Do with the GSEs? Common-Sense Reform Recommendations for the Biden Administration. Layton concludes that the new administration, if it is to successfully address the GSE question, must follow one of two possible paths in the next twelve to twenty-four months.

On November 9, Freddie Mac CEO David Brickman notified the company’s board of directors that he would resign as CEO, effective January 8. Michael Hutchins has been appointed interim President of the company effective November 16, 2020.

FHFA determined the Enterprises’ purchases of mortgages exceeded the benchmarks for all the 2019 housing goals. The report also concluded both Enterprises complied with their 2019 Duty-to-Serve requirements in all three underserved markets.

A new blog and paper by Don Layton with the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University explore whether the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) plans and actions are consistent with making the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (collectively, the Government Sponsored Enterprises or GSEs) attractive enough to equity investors, and – given the need to raise such unprecedentedly large amounts of equity – to do so globally and broadly.

Proceeds from the underlying loans are used to finance rental properties in 28 states that serve low- to very low-income residents. Out of approximately 4,500 rental units, about 2,900 are home to people with very low incomes who make 50 percent or less of the area median income.

The House Committee on Financial Services will hold a virtual roundtable at 3:00 pm ET on September 3 on Dismantling Barriers to Housing for America’s Seniors and People with Disabilities.

Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO) and Denny Heck (D-WA), sent a letter to Dr. Mark Calabria, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), urging the agency to prioritize economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis by pausing a rulemaking that would set new capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (collectively “the Enterprises”) until after the pandemic.