NAR Comments on FHFA's Proposed Housing Goals

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) publishes housing goals roughly every three years that cover the ensuing three years. These goals are targets for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) to provide support to low-income and very-low-income mortgage borrowers. In addition, there is a goal specific to low-income geographies. This year, the administration chose to lower those goals significantly, while restructuring one goal that was created under the Biden administration to address gentrification. The current administration argued that the changes proposed would align the goals with what is in law passed by Congress and increase efficiency in the allocation of credit so as not to divert resources away from middle-class borrowers. NAR was supportivepdf of this last point and is supportive of the GSE's primary market of middle-class borrowers; however, NAR raised concern with the pullback in goals given the lack of information about the efficacy of proposed changes.