- Federal Reserve Bank of New York Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit finds that delinquencies, foreclosures, and bankruptcies improve as household debt stays flat.
- NYU Furman Center Report: Building New or Preserving Old, finds that in neighborhoods with high rents, leasing underdeveloped NYCHA-owned land for private development could generate either substantial annual lease payments for NYCHA or significant numbers of affordable units. This would help the city meet two of its housing goals: creating new units of affordable housing without additional subsidy, and generating new revenue to help fill NYCHA’s budget shortfall.
- National Association of Realtors Summary of April 2015 Existing Homes Sales Statistics details the 3.3% slowdown by region and other factors.
- National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Out of Reach 2015 details the affordability of rental units nationwide. According to the study, the 2015 National Housing Wage is $19.35, meaning that someone working full-time, 40 hours a week, would need to earn $19.35 per hour in order to afford a modest two-bedroom rental unit while spending no more than 30% of household income on housing costs.
- In 13 states and the District of Columbia, the Housing Wage is more than $20 per hour.
- The 2015 Housing Wage is now 2.7 times the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
- There is no state in the country where someone earning either the state or federal minimum wage can afford even a one-bedroom apartment renting at the HUD Fair Market Rent (FMR).
Author Archives: Serenna McCloud
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- Federal Housing Finance Agency issues update on the structure of a single mortgage backed security which will be sold by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to finance fixed rate mortgages backed by 1-4 unit properties.
- Minimum Housing Credit Rate Legislation has been introduced in the both the House and Senate, this legislation would permanently extend the 9% minimum tax credit for low income housing development in order to promote certainty and make the development of affordable housing ecomonically feasible.
Friday’s Government Reports
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report Credit Invisibles estimates that 19.4 million Americans will have difficulty accessing credit for lack of credit history. This trend is most pronounced in the young and in poor black and latin populations.
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development report Examination of Alternative FHA Mortgage Insurance Programs for Financing Single Family Rental and Small Multifamily Rental Properties considers, among other things, whether FHA should play a greater role in financing for small multifamily properties. Possible benefits include: a greater supply of affordable rental housing, a more diverse stock of rental housing and neighborhood stabilization benefits if better financing options spur investment in distressed properties.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- City lab’s analyzes why Billionaires Don’t Pay Taxes in New York, concludes that recent housing boom has been in the “ultralux” market and that the owners pay a fraction of their share due to a tax code that shifts the burden from owners to renters and from the wealthy to the poor.
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an analysis of federal housing subsidy programs and their effectiveness
- Corelogic’s National Foreclosure Report for March 2015 finds that while delinquency rates are down to 3.9% the percentage of mortgagees struggling to make their payments is still above pre-recession levels.
- National Association of Realtors released data showing decreased homeownership rates across regional metro areas of the U.S., analysis of this data lead to the conclusion that continued decline in homeownership means the gains are going to fewer people and likely leading to worsening inequality in the U.S.
- The Roosevelt Institute’s Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Prosperity by Joseph Stieglitz, seeks to completely revamp the rules and regulations that shape our economy, corporate behavior and the financial sector – with a view toward creating shared prosperity. Proposals related to real estate finance include, providing §11 bankruptcy protection for homeowners and creating a public option for the supply of mortgages.
- The Urban Institute released Welding a Heavy Enforcement Hammer has Unintended Consequences for FHA Mortgage Market concludes that the significant, easily triggered liability of both the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act have had a chilling effect, causing some lenders to do less origination to reduce their litigation risk.
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued guidance to “remind lenders of their obligations under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and it’s implementing Regulation B, to provide non-discriminatory access to credit for mortgage applicants using income from the section 8 housing choice voucher program.”
- A bipartisan House Bill was recently introduced to provide a temporary safe harbor for from the enforcement of integrated disclosure requirements under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) and the Truth in Lending Act until January 2016 for those seeking to comply in good faith – this safe harbor would allow lenders to implement the new rules.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- Enterprise Community Partners issued a side by side comparison of the four housing finance reform bills currently in congress many of which seek to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- NYU’s Furman Center released its annual Report: State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods in 2014, part I of which is a focus on density – notes that while the population has grown density is actually down.
- The Urban Institute recently released its Affordable Housing Needs Assessment for the District of Columbia in which it makes a neighborhood by neighborhood evaluation of housing need and concludes that on the whole housing costs exceed affordability for the majority of residents.
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) approved its fiscal year (FY) 2016 appropriations bill.
- Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has adopted a final rule requiring the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and the Office of Finance to include demographic data related to their boards of directors in their annual minority and women inclusion reports to FHFA. The final rule also requires that the Banks and the Office of Finance include a description of their outreach activities and strategies to promote diversity in nominating or soliciting nominees for positions on boards of directors.
- Six federal financial regulatory agencies today issued a final rule that implements minimum requirements for state registration and supervision of appraisal management companies (AMCs). An AMC is an entity that provides appraisal management services to lenders or underwriters or other principals in the secondary mortgage markets.
