Posts Tagged ‘Housing’

At a press conference on Friday morning the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced 17 planning grants under HUDs new Choice Neighborhood Initiative.  The awards range from $167,000 to $250,000 and will go to groups composed of local governments, non-profits, for-profit developers and philanthropists.

Choice Neighborhoods is designed to provide support for the preservation and rehabilitation of public and HUD-assisted housing by linking housing improvements with a wider variety of public services including schools, public transit and employment opportunities.  In addition six finalists have been selected to compete for approximately $61 million in Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grants.

HUD received 119 submissions for Planning Grants and 42 submissions for Implementation Grants.  Successful Planning Grant applicants demonstrated their intent to transform neighborhoods by revitalizing severely distressed public and/or assisted housing while leveraging investments to create high-quality public schools, outstanding education and early learning programs, public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs and well-functioning services.  HUD focused on directing resources to address three core goals - housing, people and neighborhoods. 

White House Director of Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes told reporters that Choice Neighborhoods is at the heart of the Obama Administrations Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative which acknowledges that improving housing cannot be done in isolation.  It envisions turning neighborhoods into places of opportunity by linking excellent schools with housing, jobs, transportation, arts and culture and parks and recreation. 

At a press conference on Friday morning the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced 17 planning grants under HUDs new Choice Neighborhood Initiative.  The awards range from $167,000 to $250,000 and will go to groups composed of local governments, non-profits, for-profit developers and philanthropists.

Choice Neighborhoods is designed to provide support for the preservation and rehabilitation of public and HUD-assisted housing by linking housing improvements with a wider variety of public services including schools, public transit and employment opportunities.  In addition six finalists have been selected to compete for approximately $61 million in Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grants.

HUD received 119 submissions for Planning Grants and 42 submissions for Implementation Grants.  Successful Planning Grant applicants demonstrated their intent to transform neighborhoods by revitalizing severely distressed public and/or assisted housing while leveraging investments to create high-quality public schools, outstanding education and early learning programs, public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs and well-functioning services.  HUD focused on directing resources to address three core goals - housing, people and neighborhoods. 

White House Director of Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes told reporters that Choice Neighborhoods is at the heart of the Obama Administrations Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative which acknowledges that improving housing cannot be done in isolation.  It envisions turning neighborhoods into places of opportunity by linking excellent schools with housing, jobs, transportation, arts and culture and parks and recreation. 

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have released New Residential Construction statistics for February 2011.

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 housing, and 5-unit and above housing data, single family housing is by far the most important as it accounts for 70-80% of total home building (which might be shifting more toward multi-family in the years ahead).

Building Permits data provides an estimate on the number of homes planning on being built. This indicator basically tracks how much future construction activity we should expect to take place in the future. This data is a part of Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators.

RTRS -US FEB HOUSING STARTS -22.5 PCT VS JAN +18.4 PCT (PREV +14.6 PCT)
RTRS -US FEB HOUSING STARTS 479,000 UNIT RATE (CONSENSUS 570,000) VS JAN 618,000 (PREV 596,000)
RTRS -US FEB HOUSING PERMITS -8.2 PCT VS JAN -10.2 PCT (PREV -10.2 PCT)
RTRS -US FEB HOUSING PERMITS RECORD LOW 517,000 UNIT RATE (CONSENSUS 570,000) VS JAN 563,000 (PREV 563,000)
RTRS -US FEB HOUSING COMPLETIONS +13.9 PCT TO 581,000 UNIT RATE VS JAN 510,000
RTRS -US FEB HOUSING STARTS DECLINE LARGEST SINCE MARCH 1984 (-26.4 PCT); RATE LOWEST SINCE RECORD LOW SET IN APRIL 2009 (477,000 UNITS)

Plain and Simple: What's New?

I know of at least one strong housing market: WASHINGTON D.C. This market has been active. Besides Case-Shiller home price data backing that up, I see it and hear about it on a daily basis. This is my hometown. My mother is an appraiser. My father is an originator. READ MORE

Do you know of another healthy housing market?

Looking ahead...

The New Home Sales survey is primarily based on a sample of houses selected from building permits. That means we can look to Building Permits data for an indication of New Home Sales to come. Yikes. It doesn't look good for New Home Sales....

For the first time in four months builders showed increased confidence in their responses to the monthly National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Survey.  The Housing Market Index (HMI) derived from that survey bumped up one point from its previously static position to 17 in March.   This is the highest score for the HMI since May 2010, a time when builders were feeling the effects of the home buyer tax credit program.

The component gauging current sales conditions scored 17, unchanged from the previous month and the index measuring traffic of prospective buyers was 12, also unchanged. Builders, however, expressed optimism about sales in the next six months, driving that component to 27, the highest level since May 2010 and two points higher than the February figure.

The Survey, which NAHB has conducted for over 20 years, asks builders to rate current single-family homes sales and their expectations for those sales in 6 months, both on a scale of "good," "fair," or "poor," and the traffic of prospective buyers as "high to very high," "average" or "low to very low."  Each question results in a component score and the three components are used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index - the HMI - where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

Five federal agencies representing a myriad of policy interests are planning a summer forum to address a variety of health and safety problems arising out of the U.S. housing stock.  Mold, lead paint, pest infestation, Radon, and physical deterioration are particularly common in housing for the nation's most vulnerable populations; children, seniors, the disabled, and low income families. 

The conference is expected to attract more than 3,000 national health and safety experts to meet with representatives from more than 200 organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the American Lung Association at more than 150 educational sessions and workshops. The National Healthy Homes Conference (NHHC) will be held in Denver, Colorado from June 20 to 23 and is sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD); the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency. 

The sponsors are calling the conference, which has the theme Leading the Nation to Healthy Homes, Families and Communities, the most comprehensive forum ever held on the issue. "It's time that we move from talk to action," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  "Our goal is to ensure that every home is designed, built, rehabbed and maintained in a manner that protects the health and safety of American families.  This conference encourages the exchange of critical information and present innovative approaches and solutions to reduce home-related hazards." 

"Take note of HUD-sponsored initiatives aimed at rebuilding America's dilapidated housing stock." says MND's Managing Editor Adam Quinones. "This is where housing professionals will find the most opportunity in years ahead.  The FHA should reopen the 203(k) program to investors if they want to encourage private investment in the U.S. housing market."

Three Federal Reserve economists are out to debunk the theory that reducing principal balances on mortgage loans is a no-cost cure for the housing crisis. The three, Kris Gerardi, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Chris Foote, and Paul Willen, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, recently published their paper, The Seductive but Flawed Logic of Principal Reduction, in the Atlanta Fed banks' Real Estate Research Blog.

The idea that a reduction program would cure housing ills has been kicking around since the crisis began and there are now rumors that the administration and states' attorneys general may soon announce a settlement agreement that will require lenders to write down principal balances on troubled loans by as much as $25 billion. Policy wonks, the article says, will probably greet this with glee, but are they right?  The authors don't think so....

The Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said this week that risk management is not the only relevant consideration in reforming the nation's housing finance system. 

Edward J. DeMarco, speaking to the 12 Annual Risk Management Convention, said, however, that the characteristics of the government's role in housing and the reform framework that is eventually put in place will define the degree of certainty market participants have regarding their own risk exposure in housing finance.

"The credit policies and guarantees put in place during the GSE reform process will ultimately dictate private investor demand for mortgage-backed securities", says MND's Managing Editor Adam Quinones. "That in turn will determine the level of mortgage rates relative to benchmark yields."

Despite their conservatorship status, DeMarco said, the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Freddie Mac and Fannie May remain at the center of the country's housing finance system, but that will have to change.  The longer the future structure of the system remains uncertain, the more the operational risks of conservatorship will continue to emerge.   Improving and simplifying the operations of the GSEs is part of FHFA's duty to preserve and conserve assets and is consistent with the notion of their "wind down," but the ultimate transformation of the GSEs and their market functions will largely depend on actions of Congress and the Administration.  This leaves FHFA with the responsibilities of conservatorship while the long term course is determined. 

The Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said this week that risk management is not the only relevant consideration in reforming the nation's housing finance system. 

Edward J. DeMarco, speaking to the 12 Annual Risk Management Convention, said, however, that the characteristics of the government's role in housing and the reform framework that is eventually put in place will define the degree of certainty market participants have regarding their own risk exposure in housing finance.

"The credit policies and guarantees put in place during the GSE reform process will ultimately dictate private investor demand for mortgage-backed securities", says MND's Managing Editor Adam Quinones. "That in turn will determine the level of mortgage rates relative to benchmark yields."

Despite their conservatorship status, DeMarco said, the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Freddie Mac and Fannie May remain at the center of the country's housing finance system, but that will have to change.  The longer the future structure of the system remains uncertain, the more the operational risks of conservatorship will continue to emerge.   Improving and simplifying the operations of the GSEs is part of FHFA's duty to preserve and conserve assets and is consistent with the notion of their "wind down," but the ultimate transformation of the GSEs and their market functions will largely depend on actions of Congress and the Administration.  This leaves FHFA with the responsibilities of conservatorship while the long term course is determined. 

Last week the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity voted to eliminate two programs designed to mitigate the impact of the housing meltdown. 

Republicans on the Committee voted unanimously to shut down the Emergency Homeowner's Loan Program (EHLP) and FHA's Short-Refinance Option.  EHLP is not scheduled to go into operation until next month and the Short-Refi program got off to a slow start and has, as yet assisted only a few homeowners but also has cost $0 in federal monies. 

The next two housing recovery efforts on the chopping block: HAMP and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. With the Committee scheduled to vote Wednesday on the fate of both programs, supporters are beginning to fight back. 

Last week representatives of the Administration testified to the Committee as to the importance of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), a joint program operated by Departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development.   While HAMP has been plagued with problems, at last count it had moved 600,000 borrowers into permanent loan modifications while another 126,000 are in the required three month trial modification period.  The so-called "HAMP Termination Act of 2011" (H.R. 839) would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from providing any further assistance to the program but would allow assistance to continue where a homeowner was in process with an offer to participate in the program.