Freddie Mac’s excited to expand our support for shared equity homeownership programs. We’re relatively new to the shared equity homeownership field, but we’ve listened to market feedback, taken a fresh look at existing mortgage offerings and conducted in-depth research. With the assistance of national, state and local community organizations, such as Grounded Solutions Network, the Florida Housing Coalition, and City First Enterprises, we’ve reimagined the mortgage products and process for CLTs and properties subject to resale restriction. On September 26, we shared with you our offerings. We updated the Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide to:

• Allow lenders to sell Community Land Trust Mortgages to us.
• Enhance requirements for mortgages secured by properties subject to resale restrictions, including resale restrictions imposed to limit the occupancy and resale of the property to individuals or households of very low-, low- or moderate- incomes.

“Community land trust homeownership is in demand due to rising land costs and gentrifying redevelopment,” said Jaimie Ross, CEO, Florida Housing Coalition and founder, Florida Community Land Trust Institute. “Freddie Mac’s multifaceted initiative supporting community land trust stewardship will enable more Floridians to enter the homeownership market and bring community land trust lending to scale.” 

Here’s What Our Mortgage Offering Means for You

We believe our mortgage offering has something beneficial for CLTs, homebuyers and lenders.

For CLTs:

• You can now add Freddie Mac lenders to your mortgage partner list once they complete our training and have been approved to sell CLT Mortgages, which will diversify the mortgage products your homebuyers and homeowners can access for purchase and refinance.
• We’re proud to address an issue we’ve heard time and again within the field: requiring servicers to notify the CLT of a borrower’s default, so you can intervene. Our CLT Ground Lease Rider does just that. It requires servicers to notify you of a borrower’s default to provide you with more time and choices to prevent foreclosure and to coordinate loss mitigation activities.

To learn more, sign-up for our CLT practitioner training webinar hosted by Grounded Solutions Network on November 14 at 2-3p.m. EST.

For Borrowers: 

Homebuyers will now have additional mortgage options to purchase or refinance their shared equity home. They will now be able to access Freddie Mac’s affordable lending product, Home Possible®, which allows higher loan-to-value ratios, lower down payments and flexible credit histories.

For Lenders:

Our requirements will help you be comfortable increasing your lending to shared equity homebuyers and owners. This means:

• Simpler requirements to evaluate CLTs.

• Clear and simpler requirements for appraisal of leasehold interests.
• Specific requirements to facilitate better communication with CLTs around delinquency management.

Contact your lenders today & tell them to sign up for our CLT-required training webinar on November 5 at 2-4 p.m. EST.