Because of the economic uncertainty related to the ongoing pandemic, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently proposed that its 2021 housing goals remain at the levels that they were for 2018–2020. The proposal establishes housing goals for single-family and multifamily housing.

In a release, FHFA stated that to meet a multifamily housing goal or subgoal, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must purchase mortgages on multifamily properties (properties with five or more units) with rental units affordable to families in each category, as well as a subgoal for properties with five to 50 units.

FHFA measures multifamily goals performance against benchmark levels set by FHFA. On the multifamily side, proposed benchmarks remain 315,000 low-income units; 60,000 very low-income units; and 10,000 low-income small multifamily units. These multifamily goals are important because they help drive Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt availability for LIHTC sites. With the FHFA proposal, the debt for LIHTC sites will continue to be available on a competitive basis.