The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently proposed a new rule that would establish a system for evaluating and rating the performance of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in serving three specific underserved markets identified in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) in 2008 — manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation, and rural markets.  The proposed rule would:

  • Consider only manufactured homes titled as real property for purposes of the duty to serve the manufactured housing market;
  • Give the GSEs latitude to concentrate on assisting particular affordable housing preservation programs that would benefit very low-, low- and moderate-income families; and
  • Define rural areas generally in accordance with the definition set forth in the Housing Act of 1949.

FHFA is accepting comments from the public on the proposed rule by July 22, 2010. Read More…