A pair of federally-sponsored financial services entities will soon end their single-family rental pilot programs and terminate participation in the single-family rental market.
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) officials said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also known as the Enterprises, previously participated in the single-family rental market on a larger scale through pilots designed to test and learn more about the market and best practices.
“What we learned as a result of the pilots is that the larger single-family rental investor market continues to perform successfully without the liquidity provided by the Enterprises,” FHFA Director Melvin Watt said.
In June of last year, FHFA personnel convened a Single-Family Rental Workshop to solicit feedback, identify market challenges and opportunities and gain perspective on the overall market. They also conducted an impact analysis and reached out to a vast array of industry stakeholders.
Officials acknowledged the FHFA announcement does not preclude the Enterprises from proposing changes to existing programs to meet the needs of the single-family rental market or from developing proposals that are calculated to utilize single-family rentals as a pathway to homeownership.
FHFA officials said the organization is responsible for regulating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks, adding the government-sponsored enterprises provide more than $6.2 trillion in funding for mortgage markets and financial institutions.