Freddie, AHP, HSBC Launch $25MM AH Effort

Freddie Mac has partnered with the Affordable Housing Partnership, HSBC Mortgage Corp. (USA), and HSBC Bank USA in a $25 million initiative that will provide affordable homeownership to residents of the New York cities of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy."SHOP-Capital marks our fourth SHOP initiative with HSBC in upstate New York," said Craig Nickerson, Freddie's vice president of community development lending. "By working together in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and now Albany, we are expanding affordable housing homeownership opportunities to some 4 million New York residents." SHOP offers consumer outreach and financial education through AHP, as well as flexible mortgage products provided by HSBC and Freddie, while focusing primarily on minorities and families who lack personal finance management skills, downpayment funds, or both. Products include Freddie's "community gold" mortgage that applies flexible underwriting and requires only $500 from the borrower's own funds, and HSBC's "community works" mortgage that allows for discounted interest rates and liberal credit criteria on either one- or two-unit properties. SHOP is part of Freddie's "Catch the Dream" national effort designed to support the Bush administration goal of adding 5.5 million minority homeowners by the end of the decade.