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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 26 June 2025 F E A T U R E S T O R Y SIDEBAR WITH STAN B y DAV I D W H A R T O N W elcome back to Sidebar with Stan, Mortgage- Point's quarterly feature, where we ask Freedom Mortgage CEO Stanley C. Middleman topical questions about a subject of interest. Stanley C. Middleman serves as the president and CEO of Freedom Mort- gage Corporation, one of the largest and fastest-growing independent mortgage companies in the country. He is a na- tionally recognized business strategist, investor, and philanthropist, with over 35 years of experience in the mortgage bank- ing industry. Since founding Freedom Mortgage in 1990, Middleman has grown the company into one of the nation's largest nonbank mortgage lenders/ servicers, as well as a top VA and FHA (government-insured) lender. Middleman is an active member of the MBA, where he serves on the MBA Board of Directors and previously on the MBA Residential Board of Governors. He has also served on numerous advisory boards within the mortgage industry, including the boards of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Ellie Mae. He is currently a member of the Housing Policy Executive Council. This quarter, we're asking Mr. Middleman about homeownership: how the industry can support it, what its responsibilities are regarding ensuring it is offered responsibly, and potential homeowners are educated properly, and what lessons he has learned about it from his three-decade career. Q: What role do you see FHA and VA loans play in expanding homeownership when it comes to first-time homebuyers or veterans? Is that shifting, due to all the changes in Washington, D.C., this year? Middleman: Right now, it's mostly the same. As much as things have changed, much in the homeownership industry has stayed the same. Both FHA and VA loans serve a very important role in helping people own their homes, as they're able to borrow at very high per- centages of the purchase price. At the end of the day, the liberal credit criteria lend themselves to a person of lesser means: They can get into that first home. It's also great for someone who has an expanding household and needs more room for their family in a world that is increasingly more about living, working, and playing all in the same spot. Homeownership is more important than ever before, and the same great tools that we've been using for the last 50 years are still at our fingertips. Q: Are there ways that the mortgage industry can or should try to help more Americans on the path to homeownership, especially low-to-moderate- income aspiring homeowners? Middleman: If we learned anything from the Great Financial Crisis and the Great Recession, it's that expanding homeownership beyond those who can get there with the tools that exist today is dangerous and probably inappropri- ate. We have seen that homeownership at a 60% to 65% rate of the population is a good number. It probably shouldn't be much lower than that, and it probably shouldn't be much higher than that. During the Great Recession, we approached 70%, which, if your only interest was having more homeowners, would have been great. The problem was that it resulted in more foreclosures than at any time in our history since the Great Depression. I think it's a bad idea to widen the credit box, and it becomes an even scarier proposition when you're at the highest valuation in homes since the Great Recession. Being a good, responsible lender includes not only helping those people who qualify for a home but also helping people who don't qualify understand what they need to do to qualify in the future. We help identify the best home loan for each borrower, and if they don't qualify, we provide guidance, such as advising them to save more, which can lead to having a bigger down payment and lower monthly payments. Most importantly, we counsel them to buy a home that they can afford, not a home that they see as a piggy bank or an investment. Housing is more than homeowner- ship, and homeownership is more than housing. Where you live is important, whether you're a renter or an owner, and having the ability to aspire to live in a good community and grow into home- ownership is very valuable. It helps build strong neighborhoods. Strong neigh- borhoods are one of our nation's greatest strengths, and the fact that there are so many homeowners—relative to those who rent—is evidence of that. Q: Are nonbank lenders like Freedom Mortgage positioned to support borrowers in ways that traditional banks aren't? Middleman: It's hard to get a govern- ment loan from a traditional bank. We are the leading Ginnie Mae issuer, the Stanley C. Middleman CEO, Freedom Mortgage