Agency News (FHLMC)

You are reading key updates from Freddie Mac Today's News... In our April 22 Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide (Guide) Bulletin, we are announcing changes to our credit requirements that reflect current market conditions. We are also updating our requirements to capture additional capabilities recently made available through the selling system, including the sale of mortgages under the fixed-rate Mini Guarantor execution, and the expansion of the life cap range for certain adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). Please refer to the April 22 Guide Bulletin, now posted on FreddieMac.com, for complete details on these changes and more.
In the Bulletin, we are making the following changes to our selling requirements:
Revising our requirements for second home mortgages to limit the number of 1- to 4-unit financed properties in which a borrower may have an individual or joint ownership interest (including the subject property) to four
Revising our requirements for investment property mortgages to reduce the number of financed properties in which a borrower who owns more than one financed investment property may have an individual or joint ownership interest (including the subject property) from 10 to four
Revising our “no cash-out” and cash-out refinance mortgage requirements as follows:
Mortgages that are originated as cash-out refinance mortgages, held by the Seller for less than six months, and then refinanced as “no cash-out” refinance mortgages must be sold to Freddie Mac as cash-out refinance mortgages
The borrower on a cash-out refinance mortgage must have owned the subject property for at least six months prior to the note date of the new refinance mortgage
Announcing that we are enhancing the Freddie Mac selling system to:
Permit the sale of mortgages under the fixed-rate Mini Guarantor Program
Expand the life cap ranges for certain ARMs
Providing clarity on how Freddie Mac calculates and rounds loan-to-value (LTV) ratios
We are also updating the Guide to reflect the changes to credit requirements announced in our special February 21, 2008 Bulletin, and refining those requirements to provide that also effective for mortgages with Freddie Mac settlement dates on or after June 1, 2008:
Section 184 Native American Mortgages with LTV/total LTV (TLTV)/home equity line of credit TLTV (HTLTV) ratios greater than 97% remain eligible for purchase, in addition to Home Possible® Mortgages with a minimum Indicator Score of 700, FHA/VA Mortgages, and Section 502 GRH Mortgages
Sellers must also reduce the maximum HTLTV ratio when a property is located in a market with declining values
Finally, we are providing additional guidance to assist lenders in implementing First-Time Homebuyer education requirements for Home Possible purchase transaction mortgages, which we modified in our February 21, 2008 Bulletin.

http://freddiemac.com/sell/guide/bulletins/pdf/bll042208.pdf Review the full document