Innovative Products & Initiatives
To meet the full gamut of needs of the underserved, including minorities, new immigrants and first-time homebuyers, we have developed a menu of Innovative Products and Initiatives.
New Low Down Payment Home Possible® Mortgages
Many consumers are interested in homeownership, but they lack a sufficient down payment or their credit is less than perfect. Home Possible is a suite of low down payment mortgage products with flexible credit underwriting standards that will help more borrowers realize their dream of homeownership. This product also includes flexible terms for firefighters, teachers, healthcare workers, law enforcement professionals and the military.
Employer-Assisted Housing
We’ve learned that one of the most trusted emissaries for providing financial and homebuying information is the employer. So our employer-assisted housing program, called Workforce Home BenefitSM, provides employers with a powerful way to help get their employees into homes of their own. Homeownership can enhance employee stability, reduce turnover, and enhance loyalty. We provide employers with a variety of homebuying resources, including special loan products with flexible features, financial literacy, homebuyer education and even new or renovated homes built near the worksites. Workforce Home Benefit can be a vital instrument to increase employee retention and enhance recruiting and hiring capabilities.
Workforce Home Benefit is a "turnkey" approach to developing and implementing employer assisted homeownership projects (EAH) that we began in 2004. This initiative provides participating lenders and employers with a single source of all information required to smoothly and efficiently design and administer an EAH plan. The EAH information is packaged in the form of a toolkit and materials are presented in print and on CD-ROM.
Since inception, we have created Employer-Assisted Housing for many employers—from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to city and large nationwide employers, like Tyson Foods, CVS, Jackson State University, Georgia Department of Corrections, City of Tulsa, and In-n-Out Burger.
Learn how Workforce Home Benefit is working for Tyson's Food.
Mortgage Revenue Bonds Help to Make Low-Rate Loans
In 2004, Freddie Mac purchased more than $2.1 billion in Mortgage Revenue Bonds (MRBs) that were sold by state and local housing finance agencies. These MRBs provide affordable funds designed to finance homes for low-and moderate-income first-time homebuyers.
Our purchases provide liquidity for such bonds, help to ensure continued availability of lower-cost financing for first-time homebuyers with limited incomes, and promote neighborhood stability and revitalization. We also purchased approximately $460 million in newly issued multifamily MRBs from approximately forty different state and local housing agencies. These bonds are issued by state, county or city government agencies to finance mortgages on properties owned by nonprofit borrowers or other owners that agree to keep rents at affordable levels.