Copyright: Mark Van Scyoc
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today issued a final rule to implement the Duty to Serve provisions mandated by the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, as amended by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The statute requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) to serve three specified underserved markets - manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation, and rural housing - by improving the distribution and availability of mortgage financing in a safe and sound manner for residential properties that serve very low-, low-, and moderate-income families in these markets.
The final rule creates complementary processes for the Enterprises to establish plans for their Duty to Serve activities to submit to FHFA, and for FHFA to annually evaluate, rate, and report to Congress each Enterprise's compliance with its Duty to Serve obligations as required by the statute.
The final rule sets forth specific activities that the Enterprises may consider undertaking, at their discretion, to receive Duty to Serve credit, and provides that the Enterprises may propose additional activities. The final rule does not mandate any particular activities, but requires the Enterprises to consider ways to better serve families in the three underserved markets.
A comment letter sent by NMHC/NAA last March on this issue can be found here and more information on the final rule can be found here.
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