FHFA Extends Housing Data Hunt: Speak Up or Stay Silent
Published Date: 3/4/2026
Notice
Summary
The Federal Housing Finance Agency wants to keep collecting info for its Affordable Housing Program for three more years, but they need your thoughts first! If you’re involved in affordable housing or just curious, now’s the time to speak up before April 3, 2026. This helps keep paperwork simple and the program running smoothly without extra costs or delays.
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Affordable housing income targets
The Affordable Housing Program (AHP) provides subsidies for homeownership for households with incomes at or below 80 percent of area median income and for rental projects in which at least 20 percent of units are reserved for households with incomes at or below 50 percent of area median income. These targets are set out in Section 10(j) of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act and are the eligibility rules banks use when awarding AHP subsidies.
Minimum annual AHP funding requirement
Each Federal Home Loan Bank must contribute 10 percent of its previous year's net earnings to its Affordable Housing Program annually, and the statute requires a minimum combined annual contribution by the 11 Banks of $100,000,000. That statutory funding requirement helps ensure a baseline level of subsidy funding for AHP activities each year.
Paperwork burden on banks and sponsors
FHFA requires each Bank to submit project-level AHP information and homeownership set-aside household-level information to FHFA semi-annually, and FHFA estimates the total annual hour burden on Bank members and project sponsors will be 106,784 hours. The notice breaks this down (for example: 1,176 competitive applications × 24 hours = 28,224 hours; 13,455 set-aside applications/certifications × 5 hours = 67,275 hours).
Homeownership set-aside funding cap
Each Bank may allocate up to the greater of $4.5 million or 35 percent of its annual required AHP contribution to homeownership set-aside programs. Those set-aside programs provide direct subsidies (grants) for down payment, closing costs, counseling, or rehabilitation to eligible households purchasing or rehabilitating primary residences.
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