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Fannie Mae Boosts Nation's Affordable Rental Housing as Company's Multifamily Investments Nearly Double in 2001

Fannie Mae Boosts Nation's Affordable Rental Housing as Company's Multifamily Investments Nearly Double in 2001

Published 02-04-02

Submitted by Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM), the nation's largest source of financing for affordable housing, today announced the company nearly doubled its investment in multifamily rental housing in 2001, providing $22.8 billion to serve over 460,000 families, primarily those with lower incomes.

"To help millions of Americans find decent affordable rental housing, Fannie Mae redoubled our financing in 2001 to help preserve and enhance the stock of low-cost multifamily properties," said Ken Bacon, Fannie Mae's senior vice president of Multifamily Lending and Investment. "Fannie Mae is not satisfied with being the largest private investor in multifamily housing - as long as Americans face a shortage of quality rental housing, Fannie Mae will help our lender partners do more."

Bacon's comments were part of remarks prepared remarks at for the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's Commercial Real Estate & Financing Convention (MBA CREF) in Orlando, Florida.

"By helping to preserve the affordable housing we have and produce the housing we need, our lender partners are the new heroes of community renewal and to the families who benefit," said Richard Lawch, Fannie Mae's senior vice president of Multifamily Products and Capital Markets. "Together, we believe in affordable housing, long-term relationships, and that making good credit decisions day in and day out helps strengthen communities throughout the country."

In 2001, Fannie Mae participated in financing $22.8 billion of multifamily housing (compared with $13.5 billion in 2000), including reaching a new production high of $16.5 billion in Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) product deliveries through its network of DUS lenders.

With such strong performance, Fannie Mae's multifamily assets, comprised of multifamily mortgages purchased for cash, multifamily Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) and other assets, now total more than $82 billion, maintaining the company's position as the nation's largest private investor in multifamily housing.

Approximately 92 percent of the multifamily mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae are for properties with units that are affordable to families at or below the median income of their communities.

In 2001, Fannie Mae made commitments for $1.4 billion in equity investments in properties qualifying for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), which will generate approximately 35,000 additional affordable rental housing units. Congress enacted this tax credit in 1986 to provide an incentive for the development of rental housing for low-income Americans.

Fannie Mae maintains its strong position as the nation's largest corporate investor in rental housing that uses the LIHTC, growing our tax credit business to over $5 billion.

Other Fannie Mae Multifamily 2001 business enhancements and initiatives:

-- Partnered with our DUS lenders to introduce a number of DUS lender Forums which resulted in the following developments:

-- expansion of the Manufactured Housing Communities pilot to include DUS loans;

-- launch of a dedicated Student Housing loan pilot;

-- nationwide product training for Lenders and internal staff;

-- revision of the DUS Supplemental Loan guidelines.

-- Worked with our Technology Forum to move concepts into production in record time. We transformed the way we do business through MultiNet(SM), our eBusiness platform. As a result, we are better able to serve our customers by delivering Web-based tools such as Market View and the Multifamily Servicing System.

-- Introduced a number of technology improvements to enhance efficiency and lower the cost of doing business with Fannie Mae. New tools include:

-- DUS Data Connection which provides DUS lenders with access to standardized underwriting and market data;

-- Defeasance calculator on e-fanniemae.com which enables lenders to determine whether borrowers would need to pay to defease their loans;

-- Loan Summary tool, which streamlines the data submission process and replaces traditional underwriter's narrative for Aggregation and 3MaxExpress(SM) products;

-- Hand-held Property Inspection tool for use with a personal digital assistant (PDA) to facilitate lenders' ability to submit property inspections; and

-- Implemented Phase I and II of e-servicing, a web-enabled tool that allows lenders to see Fannie Mae servicing projections and the lender's servicing balances.

-- Expanded its efforts to finance $18 billion in small multifamily loans by the end of the decade under Fannie Mae's $2 trillion American Dream Commitment(SM). Fannie Mae established new flow relationships, "Mflex" partners, to serve the small loan markets.

Other 2001 Production Highlights:

-- Preservation Equity Investment production of $67 million;

-- Mortgage Revenue Bonds (MRBs) outstanding of $4.5 billion;

-- Bond Credit Enhancement production of $2.1 billion;

-- Credit Facilities production of $1.1 billion;

-- Seniors Housing production of $704 million;

Fannie Mae is the nation's largest source of financing for multifamily housing. Fannie Mae will continue to expand the products and services it offers to the multifamily housing industry, to ensure a broad range of housing choices for all Americans.

Fannie Mae is a New York Stock Exchange company and the largest non-bank financial services company in the world. It operates pursuant to a federal charter and is the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages.

Fannie Mae is working to shrink the nation's "homeownership gaps" through a $2 trillion "American Dream Commitment" to increase homeownership rates and serve 18 million targeted American families by the end of the decade. Since 1968, Fannie Mae has provided more than $3.6 trillion of mortgage financing for nearly 43 million families.

More information about Fannie Mae can be found on the Internet at http://www.fanniemae.com.

MultiNet, 3MaxExpress, and American Dream Commitment are service marks of Fannie Mae. Unauthorized use of these marks is prohibited.

Style Usage: Fannie Mae's Board of Directors has authorized the company to operate as "Fannie Mae," and the company's stock is now listed on the NYSE as "Fannie Mae." In order to facilitate clarity and avoid confusion, news organizations are asked to refer to the company exclusively as "Fannie Mae."

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