MCLEAN, VA-Freddie Mac has issued its third multifamily-backed Structured Pass-Through Certificates--aka its K-Certificates--for the year. The offering, which is expected to be approximately $900 million, is backed exclusively by 5-year collateral, a tweak that the GSE tried out last year and hinted that it would try again when it had accumulated enough paper.

Freddie Mac, though, does not expect to launch another five-year offering this year, Mitchell Resnick, vice president of Freddie Mac Multifamily Loan Pricing and Securitization, tells GlobeSt.com. "The five-year market is an interesting one. It is not easy to originate five-year loans – mainly because of where the yield curve is right now. Most borrowers are understandably looking for ten-year debt so it takes a bit longer to originate the shorter-term product."

The GSE will likely repeat some of the other innovations it launched in 2012, such as its floating-rate securitization and the one based on wrapped loans. "We continue to purchase floating-rate loans and the overwhelming majority of the loans we purchase go into a securitization structure. We could also easily be looking at another wrapped transaction," he says.

The K-Certificates are backed by 41 recently-originated multifamily mortgages and are guaranteed by Freddie Mac. They are being offered to the market by a syndicate of dealers. They include two senior principal and interest classes, two senior interest only classes and a junior interest only class.