Freddie Mac has announced the expansion of its CHOICEHome conventional financing options to include modern single-section factory-built homes, in an effort to increase the availability of affordable homes nationwide.
By expanding CHOICEHome conventional financing options, Freddie Mac seeks to expand housing supply, while providing lenders with innovative financing options. Modern single-section factory-built homes combine the advantages of factory- and site-built construction to offer a housing option that is typically more affordable than traditional site-built construction.
Freddie Mac’s existing financing options include financing for multi-section factory-built homes with a 3% down payment option. As of today, Freddie Mac will include the same financing option for single-section, or single-wide, modern factory-built homes for the first time.
Specifically, the move expands Freddie Mac’s CHOICEHome mortgages to increase the availability of these modern factory-built single-section homes, encouraging more buyers and builders to consider them as an option. CHOICEHome mortgages are appraised using similar methods as site-built homes.
“Under President Trump, U.S. Federal Housing is committed to delivering affordable homeownership and finding ways to grow our nation’s housing supply,” said William J. Pulte, Freddie Mac Chairman. “Modern single-section factory-built homes can offer high-quality alternatives at a lower price point. Freddie Mac’s expansion of the CHOICEHome program helps make more homes accessible to more Americans through the conventional mortgage market.”
Factory-built homes that are CHOICEHome certified are financed with as little as 3% minimum downpayment for Freddie Mac Home Possible borrowers and Freddie Mac HomeOne first-time homebuyers.
According to Freddie Mac, more than 22 million families are homeowners because of manufactured housing. Manufactured homes are built in a factory, according to the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards of June 1976, and secured on a permanent, nonremovable steel frame or chassis. The home can be built as one complete section, or in multiple sections, and transported, assembled, and installed at the home site. Manufactured homes cost 45% less per square foot than site-built homes (on average, $55 vs. $114). About two-thirds of manufactured homes are on privately owned land, one-third in manufactured housing communities.
“Freddie Mac’s support for modern single-section factory-built homes will play an important role in creating and promoting affordable housing in markets that need additional supply to help first-time homebuyers,” said Sonu Mittal, Freddie Mac’s EVP and Head of Single-Family Acquisitions. “Lenders can leverage our existing CHOICEHome mortgage offerings to finance these homes, and we are ready to purchase these loans now.”
Clayton CEO Kevin Clayton added: “We join the entire industry in celebrating Freddie Mac’s significant effort to add the single-section home design to their CrossMod mortgage program. This important update will now provide attainable, energy efficient homeownership to many more deserving families, helping to make these homes available in established neighborhoods and narrow urban lots.”
