Fannie Mae Introduces Revamped Affordable Loan Product

Yesterday afternoon, Fannie Mae introduced the HomeReady™ product, a new lending option for low- and moderate-income borrowers. This new initiative will replace Fannie Mae’s MyCommunityMortgage® products, which are currently the firm’s primary offering for low-income consumers.

Fannie Mae’s new HomeReady product reflects several changes to its MyCommunityMortgage offering that are designed to help it better support affordable lending to lower income home buyers. These include more targeted income limits, increased eligibility, and more flexible underwriting standards. More information on these changes can be found in a fact sheet on Fannie Mae’s website.

In discussions before their announcement, Fannie Mae told NCSHA that many of the HomeReady product features will also apply to the HFA Preferred products. At the same time, the HFA Preferred products will continue to offer the same flexibilities and advantages they currently provide relative to Fannie Mae’s other affordable housing options.

Fannie Mae expects many of the changes to come into effect sometime in December, and that the underwriting changes will become operational in Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter System on December 21.