LOS ANGELES—Freddie Mac has changed its seismiczoning map from its nearly 20-year-old 1997 UBC map to the 10% in50 year PGA map that Fannie Mae uses. The move wasmade in an effort to stay more competitive with Fannie Mae,according to Drew McCreery, a principal andtechnical director at Partner Engineering andScience. The new map is more site specific, which is greatnews because there is less ambiguity than the previous map;however, it also may mean some increased yet relatively nominalcosts. In this exclusive interview, we sat down with McCreery toexplore this and other Freddie Mac changes, including its newenergy loan discounts.

GlobeSt.com: Give me an update on the key changes tothe Freddie Mac energy loan program.

Drew McCreery:Truthfully, the only keychange that has occurred is that they have decided to pull awayfrom using the 1997 UBC seismic zone map and they have gone toutilizing peak ground acceleration (PGA), which is the equivalencyof what Fannie Mae uses as part of the Fannie Mae 2.0 program. ThePGA is based on a 10% over 50-year period, and the number of unitsis in gravity. Right now, anything that is .15g or above isrequired to go through a little more scrutiny and analysis forpossible seismic analysis. All of the loans that have a PGA ofabove .15g require the seismic report to Level 0 require that theseismic report be performed to a Level 0 based on ASTM E2557-07,and if any of the specific Freddie Mac triggers for the standardreport are found on site, then a Level 1 Seismic Report isrequired, so that hasn't change. All that has changed is that theyare now using the PGA, and that is more focused than the former1997 UBC and it is more site specific, so you can get moresite-specific information.