MassHousing provided nearly $1 billion for affordable housing in fiscal year 2014, making it the second-best lending year in the agency’s 48-year history.

The agency provided $985.2 million for affordable housing in fiscal year 2014, which ended June 30.

"Once again, our lending was in large part driven by very strong demand for our affordable home mortgage loans," MassHousing Executive Director Thomas R. Gleason said in a statement. "Low- and moderate-income buyers and homeowners are drawn to our low-cost loans – with options such as down payments as low as 3 percent, no mortgage insurance and our unique job loss insurance policies – which they can’t find in the conventional market."

MassHousing closed 3,456 loans ($766 million) to low- and moderate- income borrowers who purchased or refinanced a home. For loans used to purchase a home, the average purchase price was $237,576 and the average loan amount was $225,777. The average household income was $75,470.

MassHousing has its own mortgage insurance fund, which, in addition to insuring MassHousing-financed loans, is often utilized by private sector lenders that provide their own affordable home loans. In fiscal year 2014 MassHousing insured 47 of these loans which are valued at $10.6 million.

For affordable and mixed-income rental housing, MassHousing closed $208.5 million in loans for 45 rental housing developments with 3,869 units in 26 different Massachusetts communities.

Of those 45 apartment communities, 24 are new-construction with 1,012 total units. Another 23 are existing rental housing communities with 2,857 units where affordable rents are being preserved and the properties are being renovated.

Of the $208.5 million in financing for rental housing, $174.5 million (17 developments with 1,922 units) came from the sale of MassHousing bonds. The remaining $33.9 million (28 developments with 1,947 units) came from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and administered by MassHousing.

"The housing market has rebounded strongly in Massachusetts and as a result, a growing number of families in the commonwealth are increasingly rent-burdened," Timothy Sullivan, MassHousing’s deputy director, said in a statement. "We applaud the many for-profit and nonprofit developers that are working to meet this need and who have borrowed from MassHousing in order to increase and preserve our stock of affordable apartments."