FREDDIE MAC, NEWALLIANCE BANK AND MUTUAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION BRING GET THE FACTS! HOMEOWNERSHIP WORKSHOPS TO CONNECTICUT

McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), NewAlliance Bank and Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut are pleased to announce that they are working together to offer informative workshops that demystify the homeownership process for families in the Southwestern Connecticut.

Freddie Mac’s Get the Facts! workshops are designed to break down barriers of misinformation that keep many individuals from considering homeownership. The Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut will offer the workshops.

Through the Get the Facts! workshops, participants are provided with straightforward information and advice about all aspects of homeownership, including costs associated with homebuying and credit history requirements. Participants are encouraged to ask questions as workshop facilitators help them separate fact from fiction. By the end of each workshop, it is hoped that participants will feel empowered, with a sense that they might be able to achieve the dream of homeownership.

Mutual Housing Association, in collaboration with NewAlliance Bank, will also implement Freddie Mac’s Loan Prospector Outreach. Loan Prospector Outreach is a tool to help housing counselors assess the readiness of their clients to apply for a mortgage, and help lenders get more qualified mortgage leads.

The housing counselor inputs the client’s data into Loan Prospector Outreach, reviews the client’s credit history, and considers the various financing and mortgage options. Loan Prospector Outreach conducts a client assessment in just minutes, returning either a “Ready to Apply” or “Continue Counseling” indication. When the client is ready to apply, Loan Prospector Outreach, with the client’s consent, provides the housing counselor with an automated way to transmit the client’s information to a participating lender. At that time, the lender is able to easily access the client’s data through LoanProspector.com in order to make a lending decision.

“Financial literacy and training are key elements to moving people into successful homeownership,” said Paul A. McCraven, Senior Vice President of Community Development Banking for NewAlliance. “NewAlliance looks forward to furthering its homeownership training efforts through this new collaboration with Freddie Mac and Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut.”

“Mutual Housing is pleased to be working with Freddie Mac and NewAlliance in creating new homeownership education opportunities for our communities. The American Dream of owning a home is very powerful for our clients, but so are the barriers. We applaud the leadership of our partners, Freddie Mac and NewAlliance, in helping this Dream come alive for a new generation of homeowners,” said Larry Kluetsch, Executive Director of Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut, Inc.

“The strength of this educational campaign is the many public and private organizations working together in the community to address the barriers faced by homebuyers,” said Craig Nickerson, vice president of Freddie Mac. “Freddie Mac is pleased to be working with New Alliance Bank and Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut to reach qualified people who may be facing obstacles to buying a home.”

Freddie Mac, one of the nation’s largest residential mortgage investors, created the Get the Facts! workshops in response to its research in 2003, which suggested that reliable, accurate information about homebuying might not be reaching minority communities. The research uncovered several common misconceptions about homebuying by African American and Latino consumers. For example, about half of African American and Latino consumers believe that they need almost perfect credit to get a loan. In addition, more than half of these consumers believe that they must have the same job for at least three years to get a loan.

Workshops will begin January 22, 2008. For more information about attending a Get the Facts! workshop in Bridgeport, Stamford, or Norwalk, contact Mutual Housing of Southwestern Connecticut at 203 672-0224.
Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible more than 50 million times, ensuring financing for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters.