Housing

HUD: Wholesale Review of Manufactured Housing Rules Announced

Public comment sought in effort to identify regulations that stifle affordable housing and job creation The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced a top-to-bottom review of its manufactured housing rules as part of a broader effort to identify regulations that may be ineffective, overly burdensome, or excessively costly given the critical…

FHFA: Index Shows Mortgage Rates Increased in December 2017

Nationally, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages increased from November to December, according to several indices of new mortgage contracts. The National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders Index was 4.08 percent for loans closed in late December, up 3 basis points from 4.05 percent in November….

FHFA: House Price Index Up 0.4 Percent in November 2017

U.S. house prices rose in November, up 0.4 percent from the previous month, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index (HPI).  The previously reported 0.5 percent increase in October was revised upward to 0.6 percent. The FHFA monthly HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages…

HUD: $37 Million in Grants Awarded to Fight Housing Discrimination

Grants will support more than 150 fair housing organizations nationwide The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today it is awarding $37 million to fight housing discrimination under its Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP). These grants will support more than 150 national and local fair housing organizations working to confront violations of…

Census Bureau: New 2012-2016 American Community Products Available

The U.S. Census Bureau has scheduled for the release of the 2012-2016 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample, the 2012-2016 variance replicate tables and the Puerto Rico Community Survey. The Public Use Microdata Sample files provide a 5 percent sample of the U.S. population for users to create their own tabulations. The 2012-2016 variance…

HUD and Census Bureau: Residential Construction Activity in December 2017

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for December 2017. Building Permits: Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,302,000. This is 0.1 percent (±1.4 percent)* below the revised…

HUD: $25 Million Offered to Clean Up Dangerous Lead in Public Housing

Funding to make low-income housing lead safe The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is offering $25 million in grants to identify and eliminate lead-based paint hazards in public housing. Read HUD’s Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA). These funds are offered through HUD’s Public and Indian Housing Lead-Based Paint Capital Fund Program. This…

HUD: Record $2 Billion Awarded to Thousands of Local Homeless Assistance Programs Across U.S.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded a record $2 billion to support more than 7,300 local homeless assistance programs across the nation. HUD’s Continuum of Care grants provide critically needed support to local programs on the front lines of serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness. View a complete list of all…

FHFA: Index Shows Mortgage Rates Increased in November 2017

Nationally, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages increased from October to November, according to several indices of new mortgage contracts. The National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders Index was 4.05 percent for loans closed in late November, up 7 basis points from 3.98 percent in October….

Federal Reserve: Assessing the Severity of Rent Burden on Low-Income Families

Jeff Larrimore, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,1 and Jenny Schuetz, Brookings Institution Housing costs are a severe financial burden to many low-income families. The typical renter in the bottom quintile of the income distribution spends more than half of monthly income on rent and has less than $500 dollars left after paying…