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Duty to Serve Markets


Manufactured Housing​



The Enterprise activities eligible to be included in an Underserved Markets Plan for the manufactured housing market are those that facilitate a secondary market for mortgages on residential properties for very low-, low-, or moderate-income families in the manufactured housing market.  The manufactured housing market consists of manufactured homes and manufactured housing communities.  Activities related to manufactured homes that are not compliant with the HUD Code are excluded from the definition and activities supporting them are not eligible for Duty to Serve credit.

A manufactured home as defined in section 603(6) of the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, as amended (42 U.S.C. 5401 et seq.) is a structure, transportable in one or more sections, which, in the traveling mode, is eight body feet or more in width or forty body feet or more in length, or, when erected on site, is three hundred twenty or more square feet, and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities, and includes the plumbing, heating, air-conditioning, and electrical systems.

​The Regulatory Activities for manufactured housing are: (1) Manufactured homes titled as real property, (2) manufactured homes titled as personal property, (3) manufactured housing communities owned by government units or instrumentalities, nonprofits, or residents; and (4) manufactured housing communities with specified minimum tenant pad lease protections.




Affordable Housing Preservation



The Enterprise activities eligible to be included in an Underserved Markets Plan for the affordable housing preservation market are those that facilitate a secondary market for mortgages on residential properties for very low-, low-, or moderate-income families consisting of affordable rental housing preservation and affordable homeownership preservation.

For affordable rental housing, preservation in the affordable housing industry is generally understood to mean preserving the affordability of rents to tenants in existing properties.  This includes preventing the conversion of affordable properties to market rate rents at the end of long-term affordability periods, which are typically 15 years, 20 years, or 30 years, at which time major rehabilitation of the properties may be needed.  This is consistent with the plain meaning of the term ‘‘preservation,’’ which is maintaining something in its existing state.  The concept of ‘‘preservation’’ in the rental housing context is not generally understood to include new construction of rental properties.

​The seven Regulatory Activities identified by FHFA, are: (1) Financing of small multifamily rental properties; (2) energy or water efficiency improvements on multifamily rental properties; (3) energy or water efficiency improvements on single-family, first lien properties; (4) shared equity programs for affordable homeownership preservation; (5) HUD Choice Neighborhoods Initiative; (6) HUD Rental Assistance Demonstration program; and (7) purchase and rehabilitation of certain distressed properties.

The nine Statutory Activities identified by FHFA are: (1) HUD Section 8 Rental Assistance Program; (2) HUD Section 236 Interest Rate Subsidy Program; (3) HUD Section 221(d)(4) FHA Insurance Program; (4) HUD Section 202 Housing Program for Elderly Households; (5) HUD Section 811 Housing Program for Disabled Households; (6) McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act Programs; (7) USDA Section 515 Rural Housing Program; (8) Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs); and Comparable State and Local Affordable Housing Programs.


​Rural Housing​​



The Enterprise activities eligible to be included in an Underserved Markets Plan for the rural housing market are those that facilitate a secondary market for mortgages on residential properties for very low-, low-, or moderate-income families in the rural housing market. There is no single, universally accepted definition of ‘‘rural area’’ because varying definitions achieve different policy objectives.  FHFA developed its definition of ‘‘rural area’’ for the Duty to Serve based on three primary criteria: (1) The definition should be broad enough to include rural residents living in outlying counties of metropolitan areas; (2) the definition should remain stable over time to support the Enterprises’ Plans; and (3) the definition should remain easy to implement and operationalize by the Enterprises.  As a result, a ‘‘Rural area’’ is defined based on: (1) A census tract outside of a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) as designated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB); or (2) a census tract in an MSA but outside of the MSA’s Urbanized Areas as designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) Code #1,81 and outside of tracts with a housing density of more than 64 housing units per square mile in USDA’s RUCA Code #2.​

The four Regulatory Activities for the Rural Housing Market are: (1) High-needs rural regions; (2) high-needs rural populations; (3) financing by small financial institutions of rural housing; and (4) small multifamily rental properties in rural areas.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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