FHFA moves to curb Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac green loans for multifamily

The federal regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced changes on Friday to tweak its role in the multifamily mortgage market. The FHFA boosted the multifamily lending caps for the nation’s two largest mortgage financiers to $100 million each, but that won’t necessarily increase volume because it also ended the exemption for “green loans” that had swelled the GSEs’ balance sheets. The regulator also announced it was reclassifying loans in some rural areas and high-cost areas as counting toward the GSEs’ affordable housing goals.