The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has submitted a proposed rule that outlines its 2021 housing goals for government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The agency says that because of the economic uncertainty related to COVID-19, FHFA is proposing benchmarks for calendar-year 2021 only, and those levels will remain the same as they were for 2018-2020.
Once finalized, the proposed benchmark levels would extend those benchmarks that are currently set to expire on Dec. 31, 2020.
The proposed single-family housing goals include the following:
- low-income home-purchase goal: 24%
- very-low-income home-purchase goal: 6%
- low-income areas home-purchase sub-goal: 14%
- low-income refinancing goal: 21%
To meet a single-family housing goal or sub-goal, the percentage of a GSE’s mortgage purchases that meets each goal or sub-goal must exceed either the benchmark level set in advance by FHFA or the market level for that year. The market level is determined retrospectively each year, based on the actual goal-qualifying share of the overall market as measured by FHFA based on Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data for that year.
Interested parties can submit comments on the proposed rule within 60 days of publication in the Federal Register. The proposed rule is available here.
