BUILDING A BETTER BLOCK GWINNETT LAUNCHED BY FREDDIE MAC, HOMESTEPS^TM, THE IMPACT GROUP, TAYLOR, BEAN & WHITAKER, BRAND BANKING CO.

Rebuilding Communities By Renovating, Selling Empty Homes, Offering Downpayment Aid

McLean, VA – It’s called Building A Better Block Gwinnett. The goal is to revive Gwinnett County, Georgia neighborhoods by rehabilitating dozens of empty foreclosed homes, providing affordable low-downpayment mortgages and potentially thousands of dollars in downpayment assistance to qualified, mainly first-time, homebuyers. The IMPACT Group, mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, Brand Bank and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE), one of the nation’s largest investors in residential mortgages, are sponsoring it.

The IMPACT Group, and Freddie Mac officials hope to provide the homebuying public with a steady supply of quality, renovated homes. As repairs are completed, the homes will be marketed and sold through participating local real estate professionals.

HomeSteps^TM, Freddie Mac’s real estate-owned sales unit, will renovate the properties. HomeSteps invests an average of $5,000 in repairs and improvements per repaired home as an added benefit to the buyer. This significantly reduces the out of pocket cost to the consumer for repairs. More than half of all HomeSteps homes are sold to borrowers earning less than $50,000 a year.

“Building a Better Block Gwinnett continues to re-write the rule book for renewing America’s urban and suburban neighborhoods," said Craig Nickerson, vice president of Housing and Community Investment at Freddie Mac. "This is a cohesive and well-integrated effort to transform empty houses into attractive homeownership opportunities. We applaud The IMPACT Group, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and Brand Bank for the vision and the commitment to make Building a Better Block Gwinnett a reality."

To ensure Gwinnett borrowers have access to affordable mortgage financing, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker will offer a wide range of low-downpayment, flexible credit mortgage products, including Freddie Mac’s Home Possible Mortgages as part of the initiative. The Home Possible^SM Mortgage suite enables borrowers earning up to the local median income to finance a home with as little as $500 cash from their own savings and includes special features especially designed to help firefighters, law enforcement officers, educators, and health care professionals become homeowners.

“Taylor, Bean & Whitaker is extremely excited about offering mortgage products that really open up new opportunities for home ownership to the people of Gwinnett County,” said Lee Farkas, Chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. “We are pleased to be working with The Brand Banking Company, the originating institution for this progressive new program.”

To make homeownership even more possible for more borrowers, Building a Better Block Gwinnett offers several downpayment assistance programs. For example, The IMPACT Group will offer eligible homeowners up to $5,000 in downpayment assistance and all program participants the ability to participate in their Individual Development Account (IDA) program – a special downpayment savings program that provides a minimum of a 3 to 1match for every dollar the borrower saves.

In addition, HomeSteps has agreed to provide a $500 closing certificate for each borrower to use when they purchase a HomeSteps home.

“The results of Building a Better Block Gwinnett will reach beyond the individual homebuyer whose dreams of homeownership have been fulfilled,” explained Marina Peed, Executive Director of The IMPACT! Group. “This initiative will also stabilize communities that have deteriorated due to the high number of foreclosures that Gwinnett County continues to face.”

Building a Better Block Gwinnett is being limited to financially qualified borrowers who complete the pre- and post-homeownership education and counseling offered through The IMPACT Group. The free classes and counseling help new homebuyers better understand the rewards and the challenges of homeownership – and ensure that the new homeowners and communities created by Building a Better Block Gwinnett continue to thrive in the future.

For more information, interested borrowers should call The IMPACT Group at 678-808-4477.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned company established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac fulfills its mission by purchasing residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and nearly four million renters in America.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. (TBW), headquartered in Ocala, FL is a Top 15 national wholesale mortgage lender and the largest privately held wholesale institution. The company was incorporated in 1984 and began operations as a small town retail mortgage firm. Since then, TBW has become a respected leader in the industry. The company is now licensed in 47 states and continues to build upon an annual production volume over $10 billion and assets exceeding $550 million. TBW has led the industry in technological innovations designed to provide the best possible service to its clients. Automated technologies, immediate underwriting decisions, live loan status, instant loan registrations and rate locks, along with online closing document capabilities, help TBW’s clients deliver a faster and more efficient mortgage process to their customers. For more information about Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. visit www.taylorbean.com.

The IMPACT! Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community development corporation that offers a range of housing services from homelessness to home ownership in Georgia. The IMPACT! Group operates three main departments with specific areas of focus: IMPACT! Resource Center in Norcross provides emergency and transitional housing services for homeless families; IMPACT! Development revitalizes low-income neighborhoods and creates safe and decent communities for low- and moderate-income families; and the IMPACT! HomeOwnership Center provides home buyer and home owner education, comprehensive housing counseling, and financial services such as mortgages and down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers and homeowners. For more information about The IMPACT! Group, visit www.theimpactgroup.org.

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