- Enterprise Community Partners’ latest blog post in the Spotlight on HOME Investment Partnership series highlights the experience of 22 year old Lani, a single mother of two boy’s, who was able to transition from homelessness to stability with the help of Project Independence, a program administered by Adobe Services in Alameda California, partially funded by HOME. Enterprise is highlighting the effectiveness of the program because deep budget cuts threaten to reverse the success of HOME.
- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released a letter sent to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) expressing concerns that the recently implemented Know Before You Owe/Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Acts (TILA/RESPA) regulations are causing widespread market disruptions in the mortgage industry, and that lenders are worried about mistakes and potential liability – causing a decline in loan approval rates and ultimately liquidity. The CFPB’s Director, Corday, issued a letter in response, acknowledging that the new rules will require extensive operational adjustment and stating: “examiners will be squarely focused on whether companies have made good faith efforts to come into compliance” and that initial examinations will be “corrective and diagnostic, rather than punitive.”
- The National Association of Realtors (NAR)’s Pending Home Sales Index (a forward looking index) is down slightly for November, the fourth straight monthly decline. Year over year the metric is up, for the 15th straight month. According to NAR the decline is attributable to tight inventory and rising home prices.
- NAR’s RealtorMag predicts the top cities for first time homebuyers in 2016, among the contenders are Orlando, Florida; DeMoines, Iowa; and Banton Rouge, Louisiana.
Tag Archives: Pending Home Sales Index
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- The Federal Reserve Bank of NY’s Center for Microeconomic Data has released its 3rd quarter Household Debt and Credit Report which shows that Mortgage debt, the largest component of household debt, increased in by $144 billion since the 2nd quarter of 2015. Balances on Home Equity Lines of Credit decreased by $7 billion.
- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) sent a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, proposing that advocating upfront risk sharing targets be set for 2016. This proposal is prompted by FHFA’s near doubling of insurance fees, which are necessary to reduce the risks borne by the taxpayer when debtors default. The MBA is advocating for private opportunity to compete in the insurance of these loans – which they say will lead to lower fees for borrowers as well.
- The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has released its Pending Home Sales Index for October which inches up .2% to sustain 14 consecutive months of increase. NAR also is predicting another housing boom for 2016.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
Hello readers,
Due to a technical issue Thursday’s Round-up was delayed until today.
- The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has released its Pending Home Sales Index for September. According to NAR pending home sales are down 2.3% from August, this is the second straight month in which the statistic is down. Year over year it is still up for the 13th straight month.
- NYU’s Furman Center has released a policy paper series Multifamily Housing Resilience which points out the continued vulnerability of multifamily housing in NYC and Miami – both cities have a large percentage of multifamily dwellings in floodplains. One consequence, detailed in The Price of Resilience, is that affordable housing is caught between a rock (unaffordable flood insurance) and a hard place (unaffordable flood prevention upgrades).
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- The Furman Center has released discussion 16, A New Approach to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing in its ‘The Dream Revisited’ Series, a “slow debate.” Discussion 16 contains five essays on the subject of affirmatively furthering fair housing. This Author recommends HUD’s New AFFH Rule: The Importance of the Ground Game, by Michael Allen, which argues the HUD lacks the resources to enforce its rule which requires grant recipients not just avoid housing discrimination but “affirmatively further fair housing.” Allen believes that the only way to hold the public housing agencies and block grant recipients accountable is through grass roots and legal advocates implementing their own enforcement strategy, through litigation if necessary.
- The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index is up for the 12th straight month, year over year, despite a slight decline from July to August. The index decreased 1.4 percent to 109.4 in August from 110.9 in July but is still 6.1 percent above August 2014 (103.1). Watch NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun discuss his view of the housing market.
- The National Housing Conference has released Paycheck to Paycheck a database that compares wages for selected occupations to assess the affordability of housing for full-time employees in different areas of the United States. A companion report, A Snapshot of Metropolitan Housing Affordability for Millennial Workers explores housing affordability for millennials in five occupations, including: administrative assistant, retail cashier, e-commerce customer service representative, food service manager, and cardiac technician.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think-Tank Round-Up
- Enterprise Community Partner’s and other affordable housing advocates have launched #CapsHurtCommunities, a campaign to raise spending caps imposed and restore critical funding. They are urging organizations and concerned citizens to reach out to Congress while the members on recess – asking them to support tax extenders legislation and fully fund affordable housing. The Summer Advocacy Tool Kit contains a variety ideas for creating awareness around the issue.
- The Make Room Campaign’s mission is to raise awareness around the rent affordability crisis currently being played out in homes across the U.S. The Campaign has a novel approach – celebrity concerts, held on the 1st, (when the rent is due) in rent burdened living rooms. In July, Grammy Award winning Artist Timothy Bloom held a concert in the Paterson NJ (See, NJ Factsheet) home of the five member Montgomery family, which spends more than half its income on rent and despite holding three jobs, is behind on bills and cannot afford a vehicle. Last Month’s concert was in the Los Angeles, CA (See, CA Factsheet) home of the Duartes where Carly Rae Jepson performed her hit song, “Call Me Maybe.”
- National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index took a dip in June, after five months of increases. on the other hand, when compared to June of 2014, it reflects an 8.2% increase.
