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.

A bill to reform Housing Assistance including programs like section 8 and project based assistance was introduced in the House Financial Services Housing Subcommittee by Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO). The bill (HR 3700) seeks to streamline costs to increase efficiency and to reduce energy and water waste.
The Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling, will be hosting a Hearing entitled The Future of Housing in America: 50 years of HUD and its Impact on Federal Housing Policy. The hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22 at 10 am and Rep. Hensarling has released a statement calling for public input. Hensarling characterizes HUD as having failed to live up to its mission, despite 1.6 trillion dollars in spending, he then calls for innovation in solving the generational cycle of poverty which, in his view, is the real issue.

Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up

Corelogic’s recently released, Home Price Indicator (HPI) predicts that home prices will appreciate 4.7% from July 2015 to July 2016.
MakeRoom’s campaign to bring attention to the millions of families who struggle to pay rent. Every first of the month, when rent due, the organization arranges a concert in the living room of a family struggling to pay rent. On September first the R&B group Miguel played in the home of Devona. Devona, a single mother from Detroit, Michigan who is also raising a nice and nephew, pays over half of her income in rent to keep her family in a safe suburban home.
The National Housing Conference (NHC) will be hosting a webinar on September 8th to discuss the ways in which affordable housing development policies are linked to educational outcomes and ways in which organizations are addressing the issue.

Affordable Rental Housing A.C.T.I.O.N. (A Call to Invest in Our Neighborhooods) has released both a National Fact Sheet and State specific Fact Sheets on the impact of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Impact (LIHTC), which it characterizes the LIHTC as “the most effective affordable housing production tool.” The National Fact sheet indicates among other things that 2,798,776 units were developed or preserved via the LIHTC. The New York State Fact Sheet, in particular, indicates that 2,357,234 New York households pay more than half of their income in rent (a data point which is included for all states).
The New York Federal Reserve’s interactive Home Price Index Tool maps overall changes in home prices across localities of the United States as compared to the previous month – the data is current from June 2007 through June 2015.
The Urban Institute has published, Charted: How Housing Policy Impacts Inequality in which it charted a correlation between housing benefits and income inequality. Their findings indicate that when these benefits go to the well of in the form of the mortgage interest deduction and real estate tax deduction inequality increases. On the other hand, federal housing benefits to the poor decrease inequality.