- The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has announced relaxed requirements, effective immediately, for condominium project approval. The move is intended to increase options for affordable housing for 1st time and low income homebuyers. Among the changes are streamlining project recertification, expanding the definition of owner occupancy, and expansion of the eligible condominium project insurance coverage.
- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released its 2015 Annual Performance and Accountability Report which describes its regulatory activities with regard to the Federal Home Loan Bank and as conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Author Archives: Serenna McCloud
Friday’s Government Reports
- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that it plans to expand the Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative into 18 additional Metropolitan areas -the program gives community organizations an “advanced first look” opportunity to purchase foreclosed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac properties, before they are offered to the general public. This interactive map provides more detail about the 18 Metropolitan areas targeted by the program.
- FHFA has also released it’s Annual Housing Report for the 2014 activities of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac – in 2014 they acquired $584 billion of loans on single-family owner-occupied housing and provided funding for 738,466 multifamily rental units in 2014.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) releases it’s 50th Anniversary Commemorative Book, in which NYU’s Furman Center Contributes a chapter, Race, Poverty & Federal Rental Housing Policy discussing the key goals of the agency, evaluating its progress and identifying “key tensions running through its work.” In another Chapter, Housing Finance in Retrospective authors Wachter & Acolin trace the impact of HUD on the U.S. market.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released a report Realizing the Housing Voucher Program’s Potential to Enable Families to Move to Better Neighborhoods in which it recommends key changes which would lead to long term upward mobility for families using housing vouchers – chief among their goals is encouraging recipients relocation to lower poverty neighborhoods.
- Corelogic’s September 2015 National Foreclosure Report in which it finds the number of foreclosures down 1.3% since August, and foreclosure inventory is down 23.4% since September 2014.
- The Mercatus Center at George Mason University’s How Land Use Regulation Undermines Affordable Housing concludes that most regulation lead to higher costs (over free market prices) which disproportionately accrues to lower income citizens.
- Seeking Alpha blogger proposes that rather than a QE4 the Fed should arrange Student Loan Property Bond to restore growth. This is how it would work: “The Fed would convert that loan into a Property Bond that pays off the $29,000 loan and advances an additional $29,000 to the student for the home deposit in return for taking a 10% stake in the acquired property. There would be no dividend attached to the Property Bond – the Fed’s return would come from the home price appreciation… The main owner of the property could later choose when the Fed realizes [sic] its return – it could be at the sale of the first home or rolled over onto subsequent purchases until, ultimately, the death of the main owner.”
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- The Federal Housing Finance Agency has released for public comment its proposed information collection National Survey of Existing Mortgage Borrowers which would survey first time mortgage borrowers purchasing single family homes. The survey will collect information on the mortgaged property and the borrowers financial knowledge and resources, among other things.
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have released a funding notice Pay for Success Supportive Housing Demonstration is a grant opportunity offering up to $1.3 million in awards to create supportive housing for formerly incarcerated individuals. Pay for success programs are contracts between the service provider and the government in which agreed on outcomes are compensated with success payments when results are achieved.
- Portland, Oregon has declared a state of emergency with regard to the housing situation. The city has plans to spend $67 million in tax dollars to develop affordable housing.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- The Center for American Progress has released a report The Uneven Housing Recovery which includes an interactive map the report analyzes the problem of negative equity, which grew out of the financial crisis and concludes that the lack of recovery in some areas, mostly non-metropolitan and rural, creates a risk of foreclosure and threatens to exacerbate the rental affordability crisis.
- Corelogic has released its latest Home Price Index it shows that there has been a 4.7% increase in home prices in September.
- HOME Coalition has released a report Building HOME which highlights the success of the HOME Investment Partnership Program by analyzing its impact in all 50 states, it also includes over 100 success stories. Enterprise Community Partners is hosting webinars in their effort to #saveHOME.
- MakeRoom’s November Living Room Concert was hosted in the home of Devin Hallford in Denver, Colorado, where rent has increased 50% since 2010. Devin is an aspiring artist and restaurant worker struggling to find an affordable place to live and pay back student loans. American Author’s performed a concert in Devin’s cramped living space to draw attention to the affordable housing crisis. MakeRoom has also released an interactive map which illustrated the rising trend of Millenials living with roommates later in life.
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- A Joint Release of a Final Swap Margin rule by the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the Federal Reserve, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), “establishes minimum margin requirements for swaps and security-based swaps that are not cleared through a clearinghouse. The margin requirements help ensure the safety and soundness of swap trading in light of the risk to the financial system associated with non-cleared swaps activity.”
- The U.S. Senate has enacted the Bipartisan Budget Act to lift the debt ceiling until March 2017. Affordable housing advocates are hopeful that the budget agreement will lead to an increase in funding for programs such as HOME Investment Partnership program, for more information see Enterprise Community Partners Blog Post on #saveHome efforts.
Friday’s Government Reports
- The U.S. Census Bureau/HUD has released the New Residential Construction Statistics which show new building permits down slightly since August but 4.5% higher than Sept. 2014. Housing completions are up both month over month and year to year.
- The New York Federal Reserve has released a paper: The Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a related blog post: Evaluating the Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in which the authors evaluate the now seven years and running government conservatorship which injected $187.5 billion into the two entities. The authors conclude that the short term intervention was necessary “because of the central role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the U.S. mortgage market, and the GSEs’ interconnections with the rest of the global financial system.” They go on to argue that the conservatorship was meant to be a temporary “time out” and characterize the lack of mortgage finance reform a “striking failure” and cite broad consensus that the GSEs should be replaced with a private system.
