FREDDIE MAC ANNOUNCES NEW FINANCING TO BENEFIT UNDERSERVED MANUFACTURED HOME BUYERS NATIONWIDE
Freddie Mac announced on May 1, 2019, that Freddie Mac’s CHOICEHome brings conventional mortgage financing to factory-built homes to increase the availability of quality affordable manufactured homes that borrowers want. This increases borrower access to high-quality, affordable manufactured homes while providing lenders with flexible financing options and flexibilities to help borrowers finance them.
“The current housing supply shortage makes it difficult for people to find a home in many markets,” said Danny Gardner, Senior Vice-President, Affordable Lending and Access to Credit at Freddie Mac. “However, Freddie Mac operates in all housing markets at all times working with lenders big and small. More than 22 million families currently live in manufactured housing nationwide, and that number is expected to grow. CHOICEHome will help increase borrower access to quality, yet affordable homes in markets that have been traditionally underserved.”
Valuation (Appraisal) Will Be The Same For Manufactured Homes As Site-built Homes.
If a factory-built home meets certain CHOICEHome specifications, it is granted CHOICEHome certification and is so labeled before leaving the manufacturer’s building facility, the manufactured home is then eligible for CHOICEHome financing. These homes have features such as permanent foundations and pitched roofs. Many of these homes also come with energy-saving features like Energy Star qualified Low-E windows, programmable thermostats, and minimum insulation values.
This means Freddie Mac lenders can use the same underwriting and collateral valuation (appraisal) flexibilities previously only afforded to site-built homes. In appraising manufactured homes, Freddie Mac permits the use of site-built homes as comparable sales when there are no CHOICEHome sales available. Freddie Mac’s CHOICEHome offering is designed only for factory-built homes titled as real property where the manufactured home and land are owned by the borrower.
“Older homes which are more prominent in many areas of the country, tend to be less energy efficient thus raising the cost of homeownership because they can be more difficult or costly to maintain, said Mile Dawson, Vice President of Single-Family Affordable Lending Strategy and Policy at Freddie Mac. “However, with energy-efficient home improvements, utility expenses typically decrease for the average homeowner.
Both the CHOICEHome and GreenCHOICE Mortgages initiatives are part of Freddie Mac’s Duty to Serve plan mandated by the U.S Congress, which focuses on supporting underserved markets by financing more rural and manufactured housing and preserving more affordable housing for homebuyers and renters nationwide.
SOURCE: online news reports
