MIKE MAY
Senior Vice President of Multifamily, Freddie Mac
Years in the Industry: 26
In 2005, Mike May took over as senior vice president of multifamily for Freddie Mac. It’s hard to fathom that he knew how much the market would change. At the time, multifamily buyers were going to the CMBS markets and commercial banks for loans. But when the credit markets turned upside down, Freddie and Fannie became the only places to turn for liquidity. But as the former government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have had to deal with the broadly changing needs of their customers, they’ve also had internal transitions—going into government conservatorship.
In comments last September, May said Freddie’s mortgage portfolio had jumped to $94 billion, up 75 percent over the past few years. What’s more, since Freddie Mac entered conservatorship, the GSE has funded more than $18 billion in multifamily loans. Freddie has been growing as much as six times faster than mortgage debt outstanding. And its share of the market is at an all-time high. One of the drivers of this growth is its flourishing Capital Markets Execution program. The CME funded $1.3 billion in loans and conducted a $1 billion issuance into the capital markets. Along with Fannie Mae, Freddie has been effectively the only thing out there propping up multifamily lending in the past few years.
