Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Publish ‘Duty to Serve’ Plans

December 19, 2017

The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday published Duty to Serve program market plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the next two years.

The plans, published at www.FHFA.gov/DTS, become effective Jan. 1.

The final rule, issued in December 2016 (https://www.fhfa.gov/Media/PublicAffairs/Pages/FHFA-Issues-Final-Rule-on-Fannie-Mae-and-Freddie-Mac-Duty-to-Serve-Underserved-Markets.aspx), requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to adopt a three-year Underserved Markets Plan to fulfill this mandate. The statute requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to serve three specified underserved markets–manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing–by increasing the liquidity of mortgage financing, for very low-, low- and moderate-income families.

“The tough challenges associated with implementation are still ahead, however, to ensure that the Plans meet affordable housing needs in underserved markets around the country,” said FHFA Director Melvin Watt.

Link to Fannie Mae’s Underserved Markets Plan: https://www.fhfa.gov/PolicyProgramsResearch/Programs/Documents/Fannie-Mae_Final-UMP.pdf.

Link to Freddie Mac’s Underserved Markets Plan: https://www.fhfa.gov/PolicyProgramsResearch/Programs/Documents/Freddie-Mac_Final-UMP.pdf.

Freddie Mac noted nearly 20 million households spend more than half of their income on housing, while inventories of bottom- and mid-valued homes shrank by more than 38 percent from 2010-2015. Nationally, Freddie Mac reported only 7.4 million affordable rental units to serve 11.4 million households living on very low incomes, while the number of apartments deemed affordable for very low-income families fell by more than 60 percent between 2010 and 2016.

Additionally, Freddie Mac reported more than 17 million Americans live in 6.9 million manufactured homes, nearly half of are located in manufactured home communities and 57 percent are on privately owned land. Nearly half of rural renters live in one-unit, single-family homes; only 3 percent live in properties with 50 or more units.