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Duty to Serve FAQ

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  1. What is Duty to Serve?

    Duty to Serve is a regulation, issued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and stemming from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. This regulation implements statutory requirements for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the GSEs) to provide leadership to facilitate a secondary market for mortgages on housing for very low -, low -, and moderate-income families in three historically underserved markets:

    • Manufactured housing
    • Affordable housing preservation
    • Rural housing

     

    Under the regulation, Freddie Mac submitted an Underserved Markets Plan to FHFA describing the activities and objectives it will undertake to serve each market.

    The plan is our comprehensive, three-year approach for working with the mortgage industry, housing groups and other stakeholders to address some of our nation’s most persistent housing challenges.

    We’ll focus on increasing liquidity and stability in these markets as well as developing new initiatives, ground-breaking research and consumer education.
  2. When did Duty to Serve become effective?

    Duty to Serve became effective in January 2018. Our current plan is effective January 2022 through December 2024.

  3. How will Duty to Serve affect lenders?
    It will provide lenders with new products, product enhancements, liquidity, and research and insights to serve borrowers in the three underserved markets. Our efforts under Duty to Serve will help lenders originate more loans, expand their footprint into new markets and may align with their Community Reinvestment Act needs.
  4. What is manufactured housing?
    A manufactured home is built in a factory, according to the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards of June 1976 (“the HUD Code”-- 24 C.F.R. Part 3280), and secured on a permanent, nonremovable steel frame or chassis. The home can be built as one complete section, or in multiple sections, that are transported, assembled and installed at the home site.
  5. What are Freddie Mac’s proposed Single-Family Duty to Serve activities in support of manufactured housing?
    Through our Duty to Serve Underserved Markets plan, we will:
    • Purchase more loans used to finance manufactured homes titled as real property
    • Design new product flexibilities to facilitate the origination of mortgages securing manufactured homes titled as real property in tribal areas
    • Research and publish a report on the impact of the pandemic on manufactured home loan performance and whether forbearance stemmed further delinquency.
  6. Is Freddie Mac planning to introduce a program for manufactured homes titled as personal property (chattel)?

    Freddie Mac will conduct due diligence and accumulate data to support the development of initiative guidelines for personal property loans for manufactured housing.  We will work with our regulator, FHFA to determine the feasibility of offering a personal property manufactured home loan offering.

  7. How can I find out more about Freddie Mac’s new product enhancements under Duty to Serve?

    We will communicate any new product enhancements as we begin to implement our plan. We will announce them to the market and our lender partners directly, as we do today, through Guide Bulletin updates and our customer account teams.

  8. I am already supporting the markets covered under Duty to Serve. How can I partner with Freddie Mac?

    The cornerstone of our approach is partnership, and our lender partners will play a significant role. We’re currently coordinating all the activities related to the strategies highlighted in our plan. We look forward to listening to the experiences of lenders who already participate in these markets and having further discussions about how we can help. We’ll also be looking for, and reaching out to, lenders who have an interest in getting into these markets.

  9. How do I start a partnership with Duty to Serve?

    To learn more about partnership opportunities with us, please contact your Freddie Mac Account Representative or call the Customer Support Contact Center (800-FREDDIE).

  10. I heard about Duty to Serve, how can I learn more about it?

    You can visit our Duty to Serve corporate web page at http://www.freddiemac.com/about/duty-to-serve/ and review our Duty to Serve plan, Freddie Mac Duty to Serve Plan Summary, videos and the FHFA Duty to Serve Program Overview. Also visit our Single-Family Duty to Serve web page for market specific resources, including FAQs, promotional collateral, and updates on what’s new. You can also contact our Customer Support Contact Center at (800-FREDDIE, Option 2).