Apartment financing facilitated by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. reached the maximum level set by its regulator and the second-highest level ever.
Multifamily loan purchases and bond guarantees totaled $25.9 billion during 2013, the McLean, Va.-based company reported Wednesday.
Activity represented the multifamily loan purchase cap established by the secondary lender’s regulator and conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Volume fell shore of the prior year’s activity, when Freddie Mac said it generated $28.8 billion in multifamily loans purchases and bond guarantees.
Still, last year was the second-best year on record.
Included in the 2013 total was Freddie Mac’s targeted affordable housing products, which finance apartments that receive some form of local, state or federal government subsidy and have rents that are affordable to individuals earning up to the local area median income.
Freddie Mac Senior Vice President of Multifamily David Brickman noted in the report that limited supply and strong demand have kept vacancy rates low and rents high in a majority of markets.
However, apartment rents are rising faster than incomes, and affordable construction is limited — making it harder for many households to find affordable apartments.
“We continue to do what we can to support affordable rental housing,” Brickman said. “In 2013 we focused on increasing our efforts in preservation financing for apartments that receive government rent assistance or low-income housing tax credits. Many of these properties were built before 1990 and typically are in need of capital improvements.”
Freddie previously reported that a record $28 billion was completed last year through 19 K-Deals, its multifamily securitization program.
A year earlier, 17 K-Deals were completed for $21.2 billion.
Next year, Brickman predicts that 15 to 20 K-Deals are expected to be completed for $25 billion.
Freddie said that it produced financing for nearly 1,600 properties with almost 388,000 units during 2013.
