SPECIAL REPORT: Conference Discusses Multi-Housing World Without Fannie and Freddie

What would a multifamily world without Fannie and Freddie look like? Speakers at a panel preceding the New York Housing Conference and National Housing Conference’s (NHC) 38th Annual Awards Programs recently contemplated the possibilities and made the case for continued government involvement in multifamily financing. Panelists concluded that affordable housing may not obtain well priced financing, or any financing at all, if the government support for rental housing in the secondary markets disappeared altogether.

If they have not already done so, multi-housing players will definitely have to expect a future with a substantially changed financing system. Congress is not endorsing the survival of Fannie and Freddie, affirmed Ethan Handelman, NHC vice president. “That is off the table,” he said. All observers agree that the financing system undergird by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently will “change significantly,” said Handelman. There is consensus, on the other hand, that FHA program works well and should be kept.

Handelman said that while Congress may continue to criticize the two agencies in the next two years, however, no action will likely be taken until after the 2012 elections.

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