Freddie Mac on Wednesday joined fellow government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae in reporting record multifamily mortgage volume in 2020 that neither would be able to top this year if current caps stay in place.
The $82.5 billion in loans Freddie purchased and $76 billion Fannie bought last year
That said, the caps set for this year can be changed in response to shifts in market conditions.
“As we continue to address the shortage of affordable housing, especially amid the COVID crisis, FHFA will keep a close eye on the multifamily caps to ensure that they are sufficient and serve to increase the supply of affordable housing but do not crowd out private capital,” Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria said in an earlier press release.
The Biden administration may encourage the FHFA to increase the caps or restore exclusions that would boost overall volumes.
Under the Obama administration, then-FHFA Director Mel Watt allowed exclusions for affordable and green housing loans from the traditional caps, increasing the total volume of multifamily loans purchased by the GSEs to levels above what had previously been a cap of $70 billion for each.
Calabria removed the exclusions and lifted the caps temporarily going into 2020. He then lowered them back to $70 billion each and required a larger percentage to be used to fund affordable housing for 2021.
