Monarch Housing’s Blog!

Includes Housing Trust Fund!

Includes $3.9 Billion in CDBG funds!

Includes a 10% increase in tax credit allocations!

NJ Delegation votes 9-4 in favor!

On July 23, 2008, the House approved the bill by a vote of 272 to 152 H.R. 3221, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

Prior to the vote President Bush announced that he would sign the legislation citing an urgent need to restore market confidence in the two mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. tWith Mr. Bush’s support the bill will become law after final passage by the Senate, possibly Friday or Saturday.

Final details will be available later this week.

The New Jersey House delegation voted 9 to 4 in favor of the bill. The specific vote of each member was:

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

USA Today reports that homelessness has been on the rise ever since the wave of foreclosures began in 2007. According to a study released in April by the National Coalition for the Homeless, 76 percent of homeowners and renters displaced by foreclosures are moving in with relatives and friends, 54 percent are moving to emergency shelters, and approximately 40 percent are living on the streets. (Respondents were allowed to give multiple replies to the survey questions.)

Six cities reported increases in the number of homeless people in emergency shelters and transitional housing, and representatives from 10 cities said they have seen an increase in households with children seeking homeless services. Although several reasons were given for these elevated numbers, foreclosure was the primary cause cited.

Read the rest of this entry »

We found this update on tax credit pricing in the Wall Street Journal on June 18, 2008. Is this a sign that the long decline and near collapse of the tax credit market coming to an end?

The federal government’s largest program for producing affordable housing is showing signs of stability after months of being battered by the credit crunch.

Under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, syndicators raise money from investors to fund the construction of a project. In return, the investors — typically banks and other financial institutions — get tax credits to offset their profits at tax time. The problem: Demand for tax credits has waned among banks and financial giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because they haven’t been registering profits. That has left developers with shortfalls in their construction budgets.

Now Trinity Financial Inc. and the Boston Housing Authority, the developers of Franklin Hill in Dorchester, Mass., have sold $45 million of federally sponsored tax credits through Enterprise Community Investment Inc., a syndicator.

Enterprise bought the credits at 90 cents for each dollar of credit. True, a year ago those credits would have sold for par. But Raoul Moore, vice president from Enterprise, says the deal is a sign the market is getting used to the new, lower pricing of the credits. “It feels like it’s a little more stable right now.”

Franklin Hill will include around 150 units aimed at folks who make at or below 60% of the area’s median income. State and city agencies filled the funding gap with grants.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced on June 17, 2008, that they intend to offer tax measures as part of a larger amendment to a housing bill, H.R. 3221. We reported on the House passage of the H.R. 3221 on May 11, 2008. To view all of the changes proposed by the Senate Finance Committee click here.