On October 2, the FHFA released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) setting new single-family and multifamily housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) for 2026 through 2028. The proposed rule would introduce updated benchmarks for the 2026-2028 enterprise housing goals.

Notably, the proposal would consolidate the two current area-based single-family subgoals — low-income census tracts and minority census tracts — into a single “low-income areas home purchase subgoal.” The NPRM would reduce the single-family low-income home purchase goal from 25 percent to 21 percent, reduce the very low-income home purchase goal from 6 percent to 3.5 percent, keep the low-income refinance goal at 26 percent, and set the low-income areas home purchase subgoal at 16 percent. For multifamily housing, the proposal would keep the low-income goal at 61 percent, the very low-income goal at 14 percent, and the small multifamily low-income subgoal at 2 percent.

The NPRM also proposed simplifying the goal determination process, removing temporary measurement buffers, and clarifying how inflation adjustments would be applied to maximum civil money penalties for housing goal violations. Comments on the proposed rule will be due November 3.