Fannie, Freddie recommit to financing chattel loans

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's final Duty to Serve plans move ahead with expanded support for manufactured housing through both single-family and multifamily programs, including controversial personal property loans.

Single-family measures Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac highlight in their respective final plans also include additional support for energy-efficient financing and renovation, including in Freddie's case a new renovation mortgage product.

Freddie Mac's final plan also creates additional loan purchase objectives and accelerates the timeline for research and product development established in its original draft. It based its final plan on feedback from more than 1,000 stakeholders.

"Freddie Mac is uniquely suited to tackle some of America's most persistent housing problems, and we look forward to deepening this work," said David Leopold, a vice president at Freddie Mac, in a press release.

Fannie's plan "will use analysis, testing, innovative partnerships and loan purchases to serve markets that need help the most," Jeffery Hayward, an executive vice president at Fannie Mae, said in a separate press release.

Fannie and Freddie's final plans followed the release of final criteria for Duty to Serve by their conservator and regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

In addition to calling on the agencies to do more to reach underserved borrowers through additional support for manufactured homes and rehabilitation that preserves affordable properties, Duty to Serve directs Fannie and Freddie to promote rural housing as part of obligations established under 2008's Housing and Economic Recovery Act.

The agencies plan to expand experimentation with shared equity as well as increase debt financing options in their Duty to Serve plans.