The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its Enterprise Housing Goals Final Rule for 2026-2028, with lower single‑family low-income benchmarks and unchanged multifamily targets.
Under the new Final Rule, Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) will see their low-income home purchase goal reduced from 25% to 21% while their very low-income home purchase goal is cut from 6% to 3.5%. The 12% minority census tract subgoal and the 4% low-income census tracts goals are now merged into a 16% low-income areas home purchase subgoal. The new Final Rule also eliminates the performance buffers included in the 2025-2027 Final Rule that was published one year ago.
On the multifamily side, the low‑income goal remains at 61.0% while the very low‑income goal stays at 14.0 and the small multifamily low‑income subgoal is 2.0%
This Final Rule is effective Feb. 23, 2026.
FHFA Director Bill Pulte issued a statement that declared, “For too long, Biden distorted the housing market with harmful mandates that prioritized government quotas at the expense of middle-class families. Thanks to President Trump, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will now focus on supporting affordable homeownership for all Americans while fulfilling their statutory duties.”
Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO Bob Broeksmit expressed satisfaction over the Final Rule. In a statement, he said, “We welcome the decision to lower the single-family low-income refinance goal, a constructive step that better reflects today’s interest rate environment and promotes a more sustainable approach to affordable lending. In addition, the final multifamily housing goals and benchmarks strike an appropriate balance, supporting a healthy multifamily ecosystem that advances both affordable and market-rate production to expand supply and help reduce rental costs. MBA recognizes the potential for market disruption when percent-of-business goals become misaligned with changing market conditions. The revised goals help address those risks. While the final rule did not address MBA recommendations related to retaining the measurement buffers, we will continue to engage with FHFA and the GSEs to address those concerns.”
