The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) recently suspended certain provisions of the Freddie Mac Amended and Restated Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement (PSPA). 

One of the suspended provisions is the seven percent acquisition limit on mortgages secured by second homes or investment properties, as described in section 5.14(b) of the PSPA. 

As a result, we will be retiring the requirements outlined in the Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide (Guide) Sections 4201.15 and 4201.16 that place the six percent volume cap requirement on mortgages secured by second homes and investment properties. We expect to announce this change with a Guide Bulletin next week. This means, the currently published volume cap will not be applicable to deliveries in September and thereafter.  

We wanted to share this information in advance so you can start preparing for this upcoming change.

The suspension allows you to continue reaching more borrowers and expanding affordable rental housing by providing investor property financing in underserved communities. Working with you and other stakeholders, we strive to provide liquidity, stability and affordability in the housing market.

As part of our business model, we assess changes like these in a holistic manner as we consistently monitor production, risk and other performance measures to ensure we are meeting our objective of serving the market. Therefore, further changes are possible.