The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) has published plans to extend housing access in rural underserved markets, enhance their support for manufactured housing, and continue addressing liquidity needs for first-time homebuyers.
The GSEs’ 2025-2027 Duty to Serve (DTS) Underserved Markets Plans aim to strengthen access to mortgage liquidity across three underserved housing markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation, and rural housing.
The 2025-2027 DTS plans expand liquidity to serve nearly 690,000 renter households and over 90,000 homeowner households. For the first time, the GSEs’ Underserved Markets Plans will include strategies aimed at the entire rural market, in addition to the highest-need rural populations defined by regulation. Freddie Mac will hold six “Develop the Developer” academies in rural regions to help build rural development capacity while Fannie Mae will focus on enabling rural Community Development Financial Institutions to access secondary markets.
Furthermore, both GSEs’ DTS plans will feature an enhancement of their programs for manufactured housing communities to better support owners that voluntarily limit rent increases for leased pads.
According to the FHFA, the GSEs’ 2025-2027 Equitable Housing Finance Plans (EHFPs) contain strategies to ensure homeowners and renters in all communities have affordable and sustainable housing opportunities. The EHFPs seek to support first-time and first-generation homebuyers, expand the use of rental payment history and cash flow analysis in their underwriting systems, promote awareness of various down payment assistance programs, and enable tenants to strengthen credit through reporting of on-time rent payments to the credit bureaus.
“These new plans underscore the commitment of FHFA and the Enterprises to ensure that the housing finance system responsibly supports borrowers and renters across the country,” said FHFA Director Sandra L. Thompson. “It is critical that innovative ideas for addressing liquidity needs in underserved markets be implemented and scaled up in rural communities and other areas facing access and affordability challenges.”
;
