The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) this week published a final rule in the Federal Register that outlines housing goals for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and seeks to establish yearly standards to meet the goals.

The proposed goals for 2025 through 2027 are designed to ensure that the GSEs purchase mortgages that “responsibly promote equitable access to affordable housing that reaches low- and moderate-income families, minority communities, and other underserved populations,” according to information released this week by the agency.

On the single-family side, the FHFA proposes that 25% of the purchase mortgages acquired by Fannie and Freddie go to borrowers earning less than 80% area median income, a drop from the 28% required in the current housing goals. It also seeks a new goal for very low-income purchases (borrowers earning less than 50% AMI) at 6%, down from 7% in the current plans. The income refinance goal of 26% as proposed is unchanged, as is the purchase sub-goal for low-income census tracts at 4%. The minority census tracts home purchase goal as proposed for 2025-2027 is 12%, up from the current 10%.

Within the realm of single-family housing, the GSEs “must meet the benchmark level established in the final rule or meet the actual market level determined retrospectively for the year based on Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data.”

This rule would establish a new compliance evaluation process that differs from the current framework, which requires either of the GSEs to submit a plan for improving its performance if it fails to reach a particular housing goal.

The new guidance instead states that in such an instance, FHFA “will not require a housing plan if the Enterprise’s performance met the level required by newly-defined enforcement factors. These enforcement factors address, in part, the uncertainty in forecasting the market several years in advance as well as the time lag in determining the actual market level retrospectively.”