US housing goals for Fannie and Freddie, 2026-2028

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued a final rule on the housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for 2026 through 2028, which experts say will weaken protection for low-income Americans.

“The new housing goals lower the bar for how much support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are required to provide to lower-income buyers,” Hannah Jones, a senior economic research analyst with Realtor.com, told Newsweek.

“While that may reflect today’s market realities, it also means fewer guardrails to ensure access to affordable financing at a time when affordability remains strained,” she continued.

Why It Matters

Under the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, which governs the two mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are subject to affordable housing goals covering their purchases of single-family and multifamily mortgages.

The two enterprises back most of the country’s 51 million residential mortgages and have a massive influence on U.S. mortgages and the housing market.

Their housing goals must be regularly updated by the FHFA, with new ones setting benchmarks for affordable lending and simplifying processes with the goal of promoting Americans’ access to housing.

What To Know

The new rule by the federal agency lowers single‑family low-income benchmarks while keeping multifamily targets handled by the two mortgage giants steady, in a move that the FHFA has declared will help middle-class households.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s goals are measured as the percentage share of total mortgages acquired by the government-sponsored enterprises that meet defined affordability criteria.

For single‑family purchase and refinance goals, which target mortgages on owner‑occupied, conventional, conforming properties, the new benchmark levels for 2026-2028 were lowered from 25 percent to 21 percent for borrowers with incomes up to 80 percent of the area median income, considered low-income households.

For borrowers with incomes up to 50 percent of the area median income, the benchmark levels were lowered from 6 percent to 3.5 percent.

Refinance mortgages for borrowers with incomes up to 80 percent of the area median income were lowered from 26 percent to 21 percent.

The FHFA also simplified its regulatory framework, replacing the preexisting two distinct area‑based subgoals with a single, consolidated low‑income areas subgoal. It also removed temporary “measurement buffers” intended to ease compliance uncertainty.

“Thanks to this fix, Fannie and Freddie will continue to fully support mortgages for families from every walk of life,” the FHFA said in a news release on Tuesday.

While some industry insiders have cheered the changes, some experts are skeptical, questioning whether lower single‑family benchmarks will reduce access to credit for low‑ and moderate‑income borrowers and exacerbate the existing inequalities in accessing housing in the U.S.

What People Are Saying

Hannah Jones, a senior economic research analyst with Realtor.com, told Newsweek of the potential impact of the new benchmark levels: “How much this matters in practice will depend on how quickly housing supply and affordability improve. While we expect lower mortgage rates in the coming year to ease some pressure, the improvement is likely to be modest for many U.S. households, meaning affordability challenges may persist.”

Bob Broeksmit, the president and CEO of Mortgage Bankers Association, said in a statement: “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.”

William J. Pulte, the Trump-appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in a statement shared with Newsweek: “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.”