GSEs Support Multifamily with $54.7 Billion in 2013

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provided $54.7 billion in financing for the multifamily market in 2013, with a significant focus on affordable housing. The two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) also met the goals set by their conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to reduce multifamily volumes by 10 percent relative to 2012 levels.

Working with its lender partners, Fannie Mae financed $28.8 billion in loans, resulting in 507,000 units of multifamily housing. The GSE achieved 95 percent of its total volume capacity.

Of the $28.8 billion, $2.3 billion was provided for multifamily affordable housing, a drop from $3.8 billion in 2012. Fannie also provided $1.6 billion for seniors housing and $454 million for student housing.

“Over 85 percent of the multifamily units we financed in 2013 were affordable to families earning at or below the median income in their area,” says Jeffery Hayward, senior vice president and head of the Multifamily Mortgage Business at Fannie Mae.

Meanwhile, Freddie Mac had the second-biggest multifamily volume year in its history, with $25.9 billion for 388,000 units, the majority of which were for low- to moderate-income households. Freddie said it settled roughly $2.5 billion in targeted affordable housing products, of which about $1.6 billion were multifamily bond credit enhancements and tax-exempt bond securitizations. It also had more than $1.1 billion in student housing loan transactions and purchased just more than $900 million in seniors housing mortgages.

“In 2013, we focused on increasing our efforts in preservation financing for apartments that receive government rent assistance or low-income housing tax credits. Many of these properties were built before 1990 and typically are in need of capital improvements,” says David Brickman, senior vice president of Freddie Mac Multifamily.

The GSEs also released lists (below) of their top multifamily lenders in 2013.