As part of its focus on mission-driven lending, Fannie Mae recently introduced a new loan product designed to expand affordability and increase accessibility in communities across the country. The government-sponsored agency’s new Sponsor-Dedicated Workforce (SDW) Housing product provides financing for the creation and preservation of affordable workforce housing in underserved communities without the necessity of government subsidy.

The pandemic-era federal and state eviction moratoriums put extreme financial pressure on many in the affordable housing sector. With that issue stabilized and with the recent drop in rates, “many borrowers are now finding that the time is now right to recapitalize or close new affordable housing loans that many borrowers had understandably delayed,” said Arthanais Williams, Managing Director of Affordable Housing at Arbor Realty Trust.

As the single-family rental (SFR) investment market matures, a clearer picture of its typical renter has begun to come into focus. On December 5 at IMN’s 11th Annual Single Family Rental Forum (West), a group of industry leaders, including Arbor’s Tres Seippel, Director, Construction Management, explored how demographic trends have influenced the rise in popularity of single-family rental homes.

At the eCore23 Summit in Miami in November, two long-time colleagues who first met in the 1990s, Arbor Chairman and CEO Ivan Kaufman and RXR Chairman and CEO Scott Rechler, hosted an exclusive, hour-long Fireside Chat before an intimate group of multifamily leaders.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced a $10 billion rollback of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s volume cap for loan purchases for 2023 to $140 billion ($70 billion for each agency). This move aligns with industry expectations, given the anticipation of continued headwinds for the multifamily in 2024. Next year’s cap for the Government-Sponsored Entities (GSEs) is a reduction of approximately 7% from the $150 billion limit set for 2023 and a return to the level it was in 2021.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently published a Final Rule updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts’ formula for calculating local prevailing wages to keep worker pay in line with wage growth trends on most federal and federally assisted construction projects. The first update since the Reagan administration, it has met opposition from industry associations who contend its new wage determinations would raise costs and slow new construction at a time when strong wage gains have already pushed costs higher.