CFA and Broad Coalition Oppose FHFA Proposal to Reduce the Affordable Housing Goals

The Consumer Federation of America, along with 27 other housing, consumer, and Civil Rights organizations, submitted a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in response to the proposed 2026-2028 Enterprise Housing Goals, expressing severe concerns that the changes will worsen the nation's housing affordability crisis. The goals, also known as the Affordable Housing Goals, were established by Congress in the 1992 Safety and Soundness Act and require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to uphold their public mission as government-sponsored enterprises by increasing mortgage access for low- and moderate-income borrowers, underserved communities, and affordable multifamily developments.

The letter details how, by lowering the low-income and very-low income home purchase goals, up to 177,000 families may lose access to GSE-backed mortgages. FHFA also seeks to collapse the previously separate "Low-Income Census Tracts Home Purchase Subgoal" and the "Minority Census Tracts Home Purchase Subgoal" into one new overarching subgoal, which would reduce mortgage access in communities of color and deepen racial and socioeconomic disparities in homeownership. These changes effectively encourage Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defy their Congressional directive, to "lead the industry in making mortgage credit available." Frustratingly, FHFA proposes the changes with incoherent justifications that lack adequate data backing.

To read more about the Affordable Housing Goals and how the proposed rule threatens affordable mortgage access in the middle of our nation's housing affordability crisis, check out Sharon Cornelissen's recently published blog.

For a quick overview of the Affordable Housing Goals and why they matter, check out CFA's fact sheet below.

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