Increasing Liquidity for 

Manufactured Housing 

Titled as Real Property

PUBLIC SUMMARY OF LEARNINGS | NOVEMBER 2020
© 2023 Fannie Mae 2

Increasing Liquidity for Manufactured Housing Titled as Real Property

PUBLIC SUMMARY OF LEARNINGS | NOVEMBER 2020

Introduction

Fannie Mae’s Duty to Serve Underserved Markets Plan for the Manufactured Housing Market 

contains an Objective, Single Family Objective #2, that relates to increasing liquidity for 

manufactured housing (“MH”) titled as real property. Under this Objective, the Plan calls 

for Fannie Mae to “publish to the public a summary of learnings since 2018 including items 

such as qualitative market information, trended data for Fannie Mae’s MH loan portfolio, and 

performance data about variances or policy changes issued.” 

This brief aims to supply that information so that the public can observe whether and to what 

degree Fannie Mae has increased liquidity to the market for MH titled as real property through 

its Duty to Serve efforts to date. This brief will also mention some forward-looking factors that 

might affect Fannie Mae’s ability to increase liquidity to this market in the future. 

Trended data for Fannie Mae’s MH loan portfolio

Loan purchases during the Duty to Serve period, beginning in 2018, demonstrate growth as 

compared to the period preceding the Duty to Serve Plan. Loan purchase growth is the most 

direct measure of Fannie Mae’s commitment to this underserved market and is evidence 

of a successful initial three 

years. Specifically, Fannie 

Mae purchased the following 

number of MH loans that either 

would have met the statutory 

criteria for Duty to Serve (before 

2018) or qualified for Duty to 

Serve (2018 or after). 

By the simple measure of 

the average number of loans 

purchased in the three years 

of Duty to Serve compared 

to the three years preceding 

Duty to Serve, Fannie Mae has 

increased its loan purchases in 

this market by 53%. 

Year Loans Purchased

2014 7,806

2015 7,748

2016 8,659

2017 9,950

2018 12,551

2019 12,034

2020* 11,758

2020** 15,677

*First nine months

**Projected
© 2023 Fannie Mae 3

Increasing Liquidity for Manufactured Housing Titled as Real Property

PUBLIC SUMMARY OF LEARNINGS | NOVEMBER 2020

This summary focuses on loans that meet the criteria of Duty to Serve, which require that 

the borrower’s income be at or below the area median income and that the home be the 

borrower’s primary residence. Fannie Mae also purchases a significant number of MH loans 

that do not meet these criteria. Since the Plan went into effect in 2018, roughly forty percent 

of MH loans purchased did not qualify for Duty to Serve but still contributed liquidity to the 

MH market.

According to the most recent twelve months of data available at the time of this writing1, 

we observe the following characteristics in our Duty to Serve eligible MH business:

• 29.2 percent of loans had an initial balance of less than $100,000

• 61.1 percent of loans had an initial balance of less than $150,000

• 81.2 percent of loans had an initial balance of less than $200,000

• 29.5 percent of loans were made to first-time homebuyers

• 5.9 percent of loans were secured by homes located in high-needs rural regions, 

as defined by the Duty to Serve regulation

1

 Loans purchased between October 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020 

Duty to Serve
© 2023 Fannie Mae 4

Increasing Liquidity for Manufactured Housing Titled as Real Property

PUBLIC SUMMARY OF LEARNINGS | NOVEMBER 2020

Performance data about variances or policy 

changes issued

One of the drivers of the increased loan purchases has been the expanded eligibility of loans 

that lenders can deliver to Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae has enacted a series of variances to 

existing policy for some lenders and has published several outright policy changes. 

In total, motivated by the Duty to Serve Plan, Fannie Mae has made six major policy changes 

related to MH:

• HomeStyle® Renovation loans secured by an MH property

• HomeStyle Energy loans secured by an MH property

• Loans on certain MH properties that have an addition or have had structural changes

• MH Advantage® loan product

• Loans on MH located in certain PUD, Condo, Coop, or Community Land Trust 

arrangements

• Construction-to-permanent financing structures on MH

In addition, Fannie Mae adopted three significant variances related to MH:

• Construction-to-permanent financing structures on MH (prior to the aforementioned 

policy change)

• Extended age of credit document requirements on certain construction loans

• Combined LTV greater than 95% for certain HFA PreferredTM loans

Because these features can be combined (a construction-to-permanent loan might, for 

example, include a variance permitting extended age of credit documents), it is misleading to 

report on the total number of loans generated by each of the respective policy changes and 

variances. Instead, Fannie Mae can report that, between January 2018 and September 2020, 

there were 1,566 MH Duty to Serve loans acquired2 that would not have been possible without 

at least one of these policy enhancements.

2

 This count includes 1,105 verified loans and an additional 461 two-close construction-to-permanent loans that 

Fannie Mae estimates were made during this time. Currently, Fannie Mae does not specifically track two-close 

construction-to-permanent loans; rather, they are captured as refinance loans. This count does not include loans 

for homes that had an addition or structural change, as these cannot be tracked reliably.
© 2023 Fannie Mae 5

Increasing Liquidity for Manufactured Housing Titled as Real Property

PUBLIC SUMMARY OF LEARNINGS | NOVEMBER 2020

Additional quantitative and qualitative market 

information

In addition to the quantitative metrics provided above, Fannie Mae also tracks the number 

of distinct MH lenders doing business with us. As compared to calendar year 2017, the year 

preceding the Duty to Serve initiative, there were 27.4 percent more lenders delivering Duty to 

Serve-eligible MH loans to Fannie Mae over the most recent 12-month period3. For reference, 

the total number of active Fannie Mae lenders was stable during the same period, increasing 

by less than 0.1 percent. 

Qualitatively, there are several reasons 

to be encouraged by the progress Fannie 

Mae has made under Duty to Serve to 

date and to be optimistic for the future. 

First, Fannie Mae has several promising 

policy changes and variances planned 

for the coming months, some of which 

focus squarely on the most affordable 

segments of this housing market. 

Second, in 2019 and 2020, Fannie Mae 

began crafting messaging and building 

networks to promote MH adoption in 

subdivision settings; we expect this to 

accelerate in 2021 and beyond, which 

we believe will increase the scope of the 

market. Third, Fannie Mae continues 

to engage thoughtfully with industry 

stakeholders through participation in 

conferences, roundtables, podcast interviews, and meetings, which have provided and will 

continue to provide us with actionable feedback informing our MH activities. Fourth, Fannie 

Mae’s broader corporate focus on increasing affordable housing supply aligns closely with its 

MH goals and has provided additional momentum for several initiatives, including the major 

policy changes mentioned earlier. 

3

 Period beginning October 1, 2019 and ending September 30, 2020
© 2023 Fannie Mae 6

Increasing Liquidity for Manufactured Housing Titled as Real Property

PUBLIC SUMMARY OF LEARNINGS | NOVEMBER 2020

On the other hand, qualitative analysis of the landscape also provides a few legitimate 

reasons to be cautious about sustained growth. First, it is possible that the types of efforts 

that supported growth over 2018 through 2020, such as MH-focused lender outreach and MH 

policy modernization, will provide diminishing returns in future years. For example, if Fannie 

Mae has already educated the lenders most likely to begin or expand lending on MH, it might 

be more difficult to drive incremental loan deliveries from remaining lenders. If Fannie Mae 

has addressed some of the more pressing issues with its MH lending products in previous 

updates of its Selling Guide, there may be less opportunity to drive innovation through 

policy moving forward. Second, for much of the Duty to Serve period, but especially in 2020, 

historically low interest rates have benefited Fannie Mae’s loan purchase business. If interest 

rates rise in future years or other macroeconomic impacts slow lending generally, MH DTS loan 

purchase growth could be inhibited. Finally, the ongoing pandemic brings uncertainty to the 

economy in 2021 that applies to this market. 

Conclusion

By objective measures, such as increases in loan purchase performance, high-impact policy 

modifications, and the recruitment of new or more active MH lenders, Fannie Mae has made 

significant progress under the Duty to Serve in providing liquidity to the MH mortgage market. 

Qualitatively, Fannie Mae has learned a great deal about this market and has improved its 

ability to serve MH borrowers. Moving forward, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic 

about continued growth and deeper engagement with the MH industry, though there are risks 

that Fannie Mae will need to manage as well.