- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Staff Report, Determinants of Mortgage Default and Consumer Credit Use: The Effects of Foreclosure Laws and Foreclosure Delays, examines the interconnectedness of debt repayment decisions – specifically finding that mortgage default is negatively correlated with credit card and car loan defaults, unless foreclosure is delayed, in which case default rates increase across the board.
- Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ Remodeling Futures Program recently released its Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) index which predicts annual spending growth for home improvements will accelerate to 4.0% by the first quarter of 2016.
- According to the National Association of Realtor’s recently released June Existing Home Sales data, sales are now at their highest pace since February 2007 (5.79 million), have increased year-over-year for nine consecutive months and are 9.6 percent above a year ago (5.01 million).
- The National Low Income Housing Coalition has compiled a helpful overview of the new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule, which was released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on July 8th. This document compares the old AFFH rule to the new AFFH rule and finds it makes modest yet positive steps toward encouraging more integrated communities.
- The Urban Institute’s Are You Rent Burdened? Is an interactive calculator the allows one to imput address, income and rental amount to determine whether one is rent burdened.
Author Archives: Serenna McCloud
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- Today, July 21st The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is holding a mark up of several expired tax provisions. This Tax Extenders Legislation would, among other provisions, extend the popular New Market Tax Credit and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit which help developers finance affordable housing construction.
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently released a final rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing. HUD’s rule clarifies and simplifies existing fair housing obligations for HUD grantees to analyze their fair housing landscape and set locally-determined fair housing priorities and goals through an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH).
Friday’s Government Reports
- Federal Housing Finance Agency released its annual Guarantee Fee Report, which tracks the upward trend in single family guarantee fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 requires FHFA to submit a report to Congress annually on guarantee fees. Guarantee fees are intended to cover the costs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac incur for guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest on single-family loans they purchase from mortgage lenders. These costs include projected credit losses from borrower defaults over the life of the loans, administrative costs, and a return on capital.
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in conjunction with Vanderbilt University released the Family Options Study in which presents the short-term impacts of the interventions in five domains related to family well-being: (1) housing stability, (2) family preservation, (3) adult well-being,(4) child well-being, and (5) self-sufficiency.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- Corelogic’s Home Price Index for May 2015, reports that home prices are up 6.3% compared to May of 2014 and with Mortgage rates at around 4% – leading to increased demand – areas with high demand and low supply, such as San Francisco are seeing double digit appreciation. Home prices peaked in April 2006 and are still 8.4% below peak.
- Over 1,000 members of Affordable Rental Housing A.C.T.I.O.N. signed a letter to Congress urging both houses to protect, strengthen and expand the Housing Credit and preserve Housing Bonds as it considers tax reform and tax extenders legislation. Specifically, the letter urges Congress to act quickly to approve a minimum 9 percent Housing Credit rate for new construction and substantial rehabilitation, as well as a minimum 4 percent rate for the acquisition of affordable housing.
- Furman Center’s Data Search Tool – is an online application that provides direct access to New York City data compiled by the NYU Furman Center. Visitors to the site can select from a range of variables to create customized maps, downloadable tables, and track trends over time. Variables include, among many others: Housing costs, mortgage lending, tax delinquencies, housing quality.
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Update
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule webinar recording and the slides from their recent presentation about the changes to go into effect August 1st, 2015. The new Integrated Disclosures must be provided by a creditor or mortgage broker that receives an application from a consumer for a closed-end credit transaction secured by real property.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-up
- Enterprise Community Partners, in response to New York State Attorney General’s announcement that $75 million of the moneys received by New York in settlement with Bank of America (BOA) and and Citi will be used to fund affordable housing efforts, has released reports analyzing the consumer relief obligations of Citi ($2.5 billion) and BOA ($7 billion)
- Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, State of the Nation’s Housing Webcast moderated by NPR reporter Jim Zarroli.
- New analysis, Inequality isn’t just about money; it’s also about where you live from the Urban Institute reveals how inequality manifests on the neighborhood level within metro areas, such as Dallas which the study found had a high degree of neighborhood inequality.
