Last week, ‎the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs), issued a final rule on the allocation of resources to the National Housing Production Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund (the Funds). The rule, which was published as an interim rule in December, focused on the statutory restriction in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) that prevents the GSE’s from passing the cost of the allocations to the Funds onto loan originators and how FHFA will enforce that requirement.

Interestingly, of the 74 comments received, FHFA reports that only 1 actually addressed the substance of the rule. The others appear to have weighed in on whether the GSEs are sufficiently stable to justify the investment in the Funds, the propriety of the funds generally and other issues. The one relevant comment opposed the restriction on passing along the cost to originators which is required by statute. Under the circumstances, FHFA decided to implement the interim rule unchanged.

HUD will administer the Housing Production Trust Fund beginning in the summer of 2016. It issued an interim rule ‎describing how those funds will be distributed in January which is based largely on the requirements of the HOME program. HUD anticipates soliciting public comment on the interim rule once the program is up and running next year.