Freddie Mac Offers Assistance to Home Buyers

Freddie Mac wants to help homebuyers become “mortgage-ready,” starting in Kentucky. The GSE is teaming up with Louisville-based housing intermediary Next Step Network and three nonprofit housing counseling agencies to implement an online education curriculum, with a focus on manufactured homes.

Their goal is to support access to credit and affordable lending for the manufactured homes segment of the housing market. Freddie Mac stated that manufactured homes are a crucial source of housing stock, and the average price of a manufactured home is $71,600, while the average price of a new, single-family, site-built home is $373,900 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Freddie Mac previously announced their partnership with Next Step in November 2016, with a plan to develop a consumer education curriculum for manufactured home buyers called SmartMH, an energy-efficient manufactured housing initiative led by lenders, retailers, manufacturers, nonprofits and public stakeholders. The program pairs participating buyers with one of three U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-approved housing counseling agencies in Kentucky: Community Ventures Corporation in Lexington, Kentucky; Frontier Housing in Morehead, Kentucky; or In Charge Debt Solutions in Orlando, Florida. The education curriculum will be offered through eHome America, an online homebuyer education platform.

These agencies will provide assistance to potential homebuyers with blemished credit histories and offer homebuyer education and advice on strengthening their credit and navigating the finance and purchase processes.

Several lenders are already participating in Next Step’s SmartMH program, including Community Ventures, Credit Human Federal Credit Union, Frontier Housing, Forcht Bank, Kentucky Housing Corporation, and Key Mortgage Company. Freddie Mac and Next Step are in the process of seeking new lenders interested in making real property loans for energy-efficient manufactured homes.