While surging house prices continue to be the focus of market participants, the rental market is increasingly attracting the attention of policymakers, both because of the impact on inflation[1] and the importance of this market for the economic wellbeing of lower-income households[2]. In both cases, there is a widespread consensus regarding the need for new supply to ameliorate these problems. There are many factors that come into play regarding the construction of new rental units, including the availability of private and public sources of credit.
As part of its quarterly release of the "Financial Accounts of the United States"[3], the Federal Reserve publishes data that allows us to break down the trend in total multifamily lending into major categories of credit risk holders: On February 15, 2022, Ginnie Mae announced it was adding a “Green Status” field to its multifamily disclosures, “giving investors information that supports their sustainable investing decisions and solutions.”[1] Specifically, “The new securities disclosure allows investors to easily identify multifamily mortgage-backed securities whose collateral meets the requirements of FHA’s Multifamily “Green” Environmental Product Programs. This will assist investors in acquiring suitable investments to meet their ESG mandates and improve the liquidity of the securities in the secondary trading to other ESG investors.”
There are several broad observations that can be immediately taken from the new disclosure. First, Green loans tend to be larger than others. As of February 2022, over 12% of loans in Ginnie Mae multi-family pools by loan count contain the green flag, accounting for almost 28% of UPB. As a result, green loans stand about twice as big as those which do not fall in this category. The bulk of these units are market rate apartments meeting the Green building requirements or loans in the affordability categories accounting for less than 1% of both total outstanding loan count and UPB. |
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