Description: Challenge to FHFA directive that prevented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from purchasing mortgages on properties encumbered with liens under Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs.
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County of Sonoma v. Federal Housing Finance Agency
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/19/2013 Opinion Download Opinion issued (1) vacating district court's order granting plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and (2) dismissing case . The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator and conservator of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, issued a directive preventing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from purchasing mortgages for properties encumbered by liens created by property-assessed clean energy (PACE) programs. FHFA indicated, among other things, that the first liens of the PACE programs could disrupt the housing market and that there was a lack of underwriting standards to protect homeowners and an absence of energy-saving standards to allow for the valuation of home improvements. Plaintiffs alleged that FHFA must issue a regulation to implement this directive. The district court ruled against FHFA and required completion of notice-and-comment rulemaking. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit dismissed the action, ruling that FHFA’s directive was a lawful exercise of its statutory authority as conservator, and that the courts therefore lacked jurisdiction.