Representing both the National Multi Housing Council and the National Apartment Association, NMHC senior vice president of government affairs Cindy Chetti praised the Federal Housing Finance Agency for proposing separate fixes for the single-family and multifamily housing markets.
The comments came after the FHFA announced its intentions to unwind its conservatorships of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Chetti noted the differing initiatives to fix both the for-sale and rental housing sectors is vital to the overall goal of repairing the nation’s real estate crisis.
“We commend FHFA for recognizing that the GSEs’ multifamily programs are working well, were not part of the housing meltdown and require a separate solution from single-family housing finance reform,” said Chetti.
One suggestion Chetti made on behalf of the NMHC and NAA was for the FHFA to implement separate timetables for the winding down of Freddie and Fannie, citing the different states of the single-family and multifamily markets.
One way in which Freddie is working to help fix the housing market is to continue offering real estate-owned properties to investors for conversion to rentals. Once purchased, these investors would likely hire property managers, thus providing a boost to the rental management industry.