The Federal Housing Finance Agency today proposed changes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s affordable housing goals for the 2022-2024 period. FHFA proposed to raise the goal for single-family home purchases by low-income families from 24% to 28% and the goal for very low-income families from 6% to 7%. The agency proposed to raise the goal for refinances by low-income families from 21% to 26%.
The proposal would also replace the existing low-income areas subgoal with two new area-based subgoals and corresponding benchmark levels. The first of the proposed subgoals would establish a benchmark level of 10% for GSE purchases of mortgage loans on properties in minority census tracts, made to borrowers with incomes no greater than 100% of area median income. The second of the proposed subgoals would establish a benchmark level of 4% for GSE purchases of mortgage loans on properties in low-income census tracts that are not minority census tracts, as well as mortgage loans on properties in low-income census tracts that are minority census tracts, made to families with incomes greater than 100% of AMI.
FHFA also proposed to raise both GSEs’ multifamily goals from 315,000 units to 415,000 units. Fannie and Freddie would each be required to target 88,000 units annually for very low-income families (up from the 2021 benchmark of 60,000 units) and 23,000 small multifamily units that are affordable to low-income families, up from the current 10,000-unit benchmark.