Release in the Public Use Database of Certain Mortgage Data and Annual Housing Activities Report (AHAR) Information of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac)

This final rule amends HUD's regulations to permit the release to the public of certain data and information that have been, and will be, submitted to HUD by the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, the government sponsored enterprises, or GSEs). These amendments allow for the release of GSE mortgage data that fall into three categories, as identified in HUD's proposed rule. The first category involves HUD's public release of GSE mortgage data that the Secretary, by regulation or order, reclassifies from proprietary to non-proprietary status. Following the Secretary's determination to reclassify such data as non-proprietary, HUD will release the GSE mortgage data to the public both prospectively and for all preceding years' public use databases. The second category involves HUD's public release of certain GSE aggregated data derived from proprietary loan- level mortgage data that the Secretary determines are not proprietary when presented in aggregated form. Following the Secretary's determination that such aggregations of GSE data are not proprietary, HUD will release the data to the public both prospectively and for all preceding years. The third category involves the release of certain GSE mortgage data that are at least five years old that the Secretary determines, by regulation or order, to re-classify from proprietary to non-proprietary status because of the passage of time. This final rule provides that such data may, as determined by the Secretary on a case- by-case basis, lose proprietary status once the data have aged a minimum of five years, with the time interval for particular data elements to be determined by the Secretary. The final rule also amends HUD's regulations at 24 CFR 81.75 to incorporate the procedures the Secretary will use to make determinations under each of the above categories and makes certain technical and editorial changes to 24 CFR 81.74 and 81