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Homeownership is the dream of many Americans-and manufactured housing plays an important role in homeownership for many low and moderate-income borrowers, especially in high-cost and rural areas. That is why Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages, is committed to providing funding for this crucial segment of the housing market. Supporting the manufactured housing market is a key element of Fannie Mae's "Expanding the American Dream Commitment" to help as many as six million families-including 1.8 million minority families-become first-time homeowners over the next decade.
As part of this initiative, Fannie Mae has pledged to tackle America's toughest housing problems and expand the supply of affordable housing where it is needed most. For example, the manufactured housing industry has undergone many changes in recent years and those changes have resulted in higher borrower delinquencies and foreclosures and fewer financing options available for both new and existing homes.
To help rectify these problems, Fannie Mae has joined with nine of its lender partners to work toward transforming the manufactured housing market, including providing purchasers of manufactured homes nationwide access to affordable 30-year mortgage financing with down payments as low as five percent. The lenders include: AgFirst Farm Credit Bank; Flagstar Bank; GMAC Manufactured Housing; Huntington Mortgage Group; Origen Financial; RBC Mortgage; 21st Mortgage; Vanderbilt Mortgage; and Washington Mutual. Fannie Mae will work with these experienced lenders to disseminate best practices, which will help ensure that consumers stay in their homes and reduce the cost of owning a manufactured home.
Additionally, the company has pledged to work with its lender partners over the next year to develop a pilot effort to save consumers at least 10 percent of the cost of buying and financing a manufactured home.
"Fannie Mae has invested in manufactured housing mortgages for over 20 years and we're committed to working with our housing partners to ensure access to low-cost homeownership for a large part of the population, especially seniors and people living in rural communities who rely on manufactured housing as an affordable option," said Franklin D. Raines, Chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae. "We want to strengthen the market for manufactured housing financing, and eliminate predatory and anti-consumer features that have contributed to instability in the marketplace over time."
To obtain contact information for the lenders who are offering the five percent down payment options for manufactured housing mortgages, contact Fannie Mae's Consumer Resource Center at 1-800-7-FANNIE or log onto www.fanniemae.com.
Franklin D. Raines, Chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae.
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