Browse by Tags

Six cities have been selected for a pilot program designed by the Obama Administration to strengthen local capacity, spark economic growth and ensure that taxpayer dollars are used efficiently. The initiative, named Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) will involve multiple federal agencies which will provide staff to work with local governments. The program has three primary goals: To help local governments cut through federal red tape and navigate the "overlapping maze" of agencies, regulations...

Affordable rental housing is the focus of the second edition of Evidence Matters , the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) new quarterly publication devoted to housing and community development issues. This edition focuses on several proposals that came out of the Next Generation Housing Policy Conference held last October. The Conference, sponsored by the White House, HUD and the Departments of Treasury and Agriculture, brought together prominent housing experts and practitioners...

The Huffington Post reported late yesterday that five of the country's largest mortgage lenders may have defrauded taxpayers by filing false claims with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Confidential audits conducted on Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Ally Financial (formerly GMAC) provided information which has now been referred to the Department of Justice for a decision on filing charges. The author of the article, Shahien Nasiripour, said the Inspector General...

Congress needs to pass a "Continuing Resolution" by midnight on Friday, April 8th to avoid a government shutdown. From Wikipedia : A continuing resolution is a type of appropriations legislation used by the United States Congress to fund government agencies if a formal appropriations bill has not been signed into law by the end of the Congressional fiscal year. The legislation takes the form of a joint resolution, and provides funding for existing federal programs at current or reduced levels. Reuters...

A day after the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced the resignation of CEO John Courson and the appointment of David Stevens to replace him, the MBA's choice of Stevens seems a little puzzling. MBA is the national association representing the real estate finance industry. That makes them lobbyists. David Stevens is currently the Assistant HUD Secretary and Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). According "The Revolving Door Ban" contained in Part (5) of the Ethics Commitments...

Fannie Mae has announced a new program to measure and evaluate the performance of its servicers' actions toward helping homeowners avoid foreclosure. The Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards Program or "STAR" is designed to directly link servicer performance in assisting homeowners to the customer's experience with that assistance. In a speech to the Mortgage Bankers Association earlier this week, Edward J. Demarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA) signaled that...

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have released New Residential Construction statistics for January 2010. Housing Starts data estimates how much new residential real estate construction occurred in the previous month. New construction means digging has begun. Adding rooms or renovating old ones does not count, the builder must be constructing a new home (can be on old foundation if re-building). Although the report offers up single family housing, 2-4 unit...

HUD's definition of Worst Case Housing Needs (WCN): unassisted very low-income renters who either (1) pay more than one-half of their monthly income for rent; or (2) live in severely inadequate conditions, or both. HUD defines "very low-income" as below 50 percent of the local area median income (AMI) and "extremely low-income" as below 30 percent of AMI. In its Worst Case Housing Needs report to Congress, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said the number of people classified as "Worst...