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About Us

About Us

Fannie Mae supports America’s housing finance system

Since 1938, Fannie Mae has provided a reliable source of affordable mortgage financing for homeowners, homebuyers, and renters across the country. We play an essential role, especially during tough economic times, by helping ensure the market has stable liquidity. The housing market makes up approximately 18% of the United States’ GDP, so a strong housing market means a stronger American economy.

Learn how we’ve transformed our business model

 

Our impact

1 in 4

single-family mortgage loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae (estimated)

1.5 million

home purchases, refinancings, and rental units enabled in 2023

30-year

fixed-rate mortgages offered as a result of our financing

21%

multifamily outstanding mortgage debt guaranteed by Fannie Mae (estimated)

Data as of Sept. 30, 2024

Providing liquidity to the housing market

We do not originate loans or lend money directly to borrowers. Instead, we provide liquidity to the market by purchasing mortgages from lenders and bundling them into mortgage-backed securities that we guarantee and sell to investors. Lenders use their replenished cash to originate new mortgages, and we use ours to start the process again. This continuous flow of funds plus the standards we maintain for the industry promote a healthy housing market.

In 2023, Fannie Mae enabled the financing of approximately 1.5 million home purchases, refinancings, and rental units.

Housing Market Liquidity

Creating opportunities to rent, buy, and refinance

Our work benefits the housing market by helping provide:

Affordability

We increase housing affordability by offering programs, products, and tools that help make housing more accessible — including our HomeReady® mortgage, which allows down payments as low as 3%.

Liquidity

We enable liquidity for mortgage lending, which helps make affordable housing options available through all market conditions, including times of economic downturn.

Stability

We support housing stability by maintaining responsible, inclusive credit standards, making the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage possible, providing homeowners and renters with education, and offering a wide range of options to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.

Working to reduce barriers and expand access

Fannie Mae enables access to long-term homeownership and quality, affordable rental housing across America. Today, Fannie Mae is using leading technology and our performance data on millions of loans to improve the mortgage process, making it easier and more accessible for lenders and homebuyers.

We are providing lenders with the technology and tools to see and serve creditworthy borrowers who were previously “invisible” to the mortgage system. Our work helps make underwriting and appraisals more fair and less subject to bias. We also provide reliable information to educate and empower homeowners and renters in their housing decisions.