Jackson: AH Goals Affecting GSE Behavior

Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson says new affordable housing goals are encouraging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase their purchases of multifamily loans and loans to first-time homebuyers."The new goals are already affecting GSE behavior," Secretary Jackson told a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting. "We are pleased to see both GSEs putting more effort into serving first-time homebuyers, because they traditionally have lagged behind other lenders in this area." (The new AH goals went into effect Jan. 1.) The secretary of Housing and Urban Development also told the mayors that the Bush administration will try again to get Congress to approve a new federally insured zero-downpayment loan program. The Federal Housing Administration has helped nearly 500,000 minority families become homeowners in the past two years. "That's a good record, and we're going to build on it," the secretary said in his prepared remarks.