Monarch Housing’s Blog!

How are lowest income Americans affected by the current mortgage crisis? Commonly described as a problem of mortgage markets and home prices, little attention has been paid to households at the bottom of the housing ladder — extremely low income renters and homeowners — and the persistent mismatch between these families and available affordable housing. In part this is because the data do not easily allow a direct connection between foreclosure or eviction and characteristics such as income, and many of the statistics that will provide in depth information on the changing housing situations of Americans, are still years away from being released.

This Expert Chat will present recent data and analysis on the current housing market and draw some preliminary conclusions about the impact of the current crisis on the affordability and availability of rental housing for the lowest income households. The material in the presentation will draw primarily from recent and ongoing research at NLIHC on foreclosure and rental markets - including the most recent Out of Reach report - providing participants with a comprehensible overview of the emerging patterns and trends to watch.

Current trends and patterns in national housing market indicators such as home prices, rents, and vacancy rates and the implications for these households of greatest concern to the Coalition, the lowest income Americans, will be discussed. Also, findings from NLIHC research on the types of housing and the characteristics of neighborhoods most affected by foreclosure in New England, and the results of a national survey of housing counselors concerning the income and tenure characteristics of the households they serve, will be shared.

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Includes Housing Trust Fund!

Includes $3.9 Billion in CDBG funds!

Includes a 10% increase in tax credit allocations!

On Friday July 11, 2008, the US Senate voted to approve HR 3221 by a vote of 63 to 5. The next step will be to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House bills. According to the NY Times, “the House approved its version in May, and though the White House has issued a formal veto threat - and repeated it on Friday - administration officials have indicated that a compromise was likely. Previous votes on the housing bills showed that a presidential veto could easily be overridden.”

The primary focus of the legislation will be to “let the Federal Housing Administration back up to $300 billion in new loans, enabling lenders and borrowers now saddled with unaffordable mortgages to refinance them and assume more manageable 30-year fixed-rate loans. To take part in the program, lenders would have to lower each debt obligation to 85 percent of a home’s current value.” It also includes dedicated funding for the National Housing Trust Fund, $3.9 billion in CDBG funds and an increase in the allocation formula for low income housing tax credits.

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