Michele Evans and Rob Levin

Even amid difficult market conditions, Michele Evans steered the Federal National Mortgage Association — known to the public as Fannie Mae — to another impressive year of activity between March 1, 2023, and March 1, 2024. And Rob Levin navigated the 56-year-old government-sponsored enterprise’s particular focus on multifamily. 

Using its delegated underwriting and servicing (DUS) program — now in its 36th year — Fannie Mae Multifamily provided liquidity to numerous American housing sectors amid a general pullback in lending, financing and development in 2023. 

Fannie Mae acquired $52.9 billion in loans in deals that saw the enterprise focus on not only purchasing first-lien loans secured by rental housing with more than five units, but also loans secured by senior housing, student housing and affordable manufactured housing communities.

“We are extremely proud of what we and our DUS lenders accomplished in 2023, and we continue to see our work have a positive impact in communities across the country,” said Michele Evans.

The numbers across Fannie’s 2023 portfolio demonstrate its variety and reach: $8.5 billion in structured transactions; $7.5 billion in green housing financing; $6.6 billion in affordable multifamily housing; $5.1 billion in small to midsize loans; $3.5 billion in manufactured housing; and $500 million in senior housing. 

“We have provided consistency through the challenges in the market over the last year and have been flexible in our product offerings based on market needs,” added Evans.

Fannie Mae launched the sponsor-dedicated workforce housing program in October 2023, a new series of financing incentives that aim to create and preserve affordable workforce development housing. A pair of deals that crossed the finish line due to this new program were the financing of Willow Bend and Sunrise Apartments, a 112-unit, garden-style multifamily community in Irving, Texas, of which 71 percent of units are affordable; and The Gale Eckington in Washington, D.C., a 603-unit workforce housing community that ensured income affordability on 58 percent of units. 

This renewed focus on affordability is the central value of the entire agency. “Expanding borrower diversity is one of our strategic aims in the multifamily business,” said Rob Levin. “As a result, we’re taking proactive steps to drive change across our industry by working with our lender partners to explore ways to increase access to credit for underserved borrowers.”