Weekly Real Estate News
Summary
Community Associations Institute advocates are taking the fight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac condominium requirements to Congress, seeking a one-year implementation delay, expanded repair financing and disaster-recovery changes.
Condominium financing rules are moving from lender operations desks to Capitol Hill.
The Community Associations Institute is bringing advocates to Washington Thursday for its 2026 Congressional Advocacy Summit, where one of the central asks will be a one-year delay in upcoming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac condominium lending changes. The group also plans to press lawmakers for federally backed financing for structural repairs and changes to disaster assistance.
The lobbying push is a new stage in an issue WRE News has been following since housing groups asked FHFA Director Bill Pulte to delay the new condo requirements. CAI’s current strategy is to enlist members of Congress to press FHFA and the government-sponsored enterprises directly.
The fight is over more than a questionnaire
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued updated project standards and condominium lender questionnaires in March. CAI says the changes include the elimination of streamlined limited reviews, higher reserve-funding expectations and new reserve-study implementation requirements.
The group supports the goal of stronger condominium finances and building safety but argues the implementation schedule could increase costs, reduce lender participation and make financing harder to obtain for otherwise viable projects. In its 2026 federal advocacy priorities, CAI says it will ask congressional offices to meet with Fannie, Freddie and FHFA staff and urge a one-year delay.
CAI says more than 78.1 million Americans live in 373,000 homeowners associations, condominium communities and housing cooperatives encompassing 29.6 million homes. That scale means changes in project eligibility can reach well beyond association boards: they can affect whether buyers can obtain conventional mortgages and whether existing owners have a sufficiently deep pool of financed buyers when they sell.
Safety reforms created a financing problem of their own
Condo underwriting tightened substantially after the June 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people and intensified scrutiny of deferred maintenance, structural safety and association reserves.
The policy tension is straightforward. Lenders and the GSEs need evidence that a building is safe, adequately insured and financially capable of maintaining itself. Associations argue that increasingly detailed reviews and reserve requirements can impose costs that are particularly difficult for older buildings and lower-cost condominium communities to absorb.
CAI is also backing H.R. 9569, the Making Condos Safer and Affordable Act. According to the group’s legislative summary, the bill would expand access to federally backed financing for condominium associations and individual owners to pay for structural repairs and safety work, including federally insured financing that could help owners cover special assessments.
That proposal attempts to address the other side of stricter underwriting: identifying a financing mechanism for communities that need expensive work in order to remain safe and financeable.
Insurance and disasters are part of the same affordability equation
CAI’s Thursday agenda extends beyond Fannie and Freddie. The organization is supporting disaster-recovery legislation it says would improve access to funds for community associations rebuilding common areas after catastrophes. It is also pushing Congress on insurance affordability, an increasingly important component of condo eligibility and monthly ownership costs.
In a Sept. 21 summit preview, CAI said advocates would also seek repeal of the Corporate Transparency Act and discuss other policies affecting community associations.
The financing issue is the one with the most immediate connection to housing transactions. A condominium can be affordable on its listing price and still become effectively unavailable to a conventional buyer if the project cannot satisfy lender or GSE requirements. Conversely, weakening project review without addressing deferred maintenance and inadequate reserves can transfer substantial risk to buyers, lenders and other owners.
Thursday’s congressional meetings will not themselves change Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac policy. They will show whether CAI can turn industry concern into enough political pressure to alter the implementation timetable. For lenders, agents and condo boards, the next important question is whether FHFA or either GSE signals any willingness to delay or revise the changes before they take effect.
