FEDS Notes: Where’s the Money Going? The Importance of Accounting for Rent Payments in Measuring a Household’s Financial Obligations
Andrew C. Chang, Joanne W. Hsu, Sarah J. Pack, and Michael G. Palumbo 1 According to the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), in 2016 about 12 percent of American families’ monthly income was needed to cover payments associated with the various types of debt they owed–mostly mortgages, car loans, student loans, and…
Federal Reserve: Board Issues Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households
The Federal Reserve Board’s latest Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households finds that economic well-being has generally improved over the past five years. The report notes that 74 percent of adults reported they were doing at least OK financially in 2017‑‑up 10 percentage points from the first survey in 2013. Even so, notable…
CDFI Fund: Revised Opportunity Zones Resource Data Now Available
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has released revised information concerning census tracts that are eligible for nomination as Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs). Specifically, data in the Opportunity Zones Information Resource has been updated from information provided in a February 8, 2018, release to include all census tracts that meet the New Markets Tax Credit…
HUD: Trump Administration Proposes 2019 HUD Budget
Spending plan will preserve or increase support for homeless, seniors, disabled, and healthy housing WASHINGTON – The Trump Administration today announced the proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Budget for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a $41.24 billion spending plan that continues or expands support for vulnerable populations including those experiencing homelessness, the…
CDFI Fund: FY 2018 Funding Round for CDFI Program and NACA Program Opened
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) opened the fiscal year (FY) 2018 funding round for the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). The awards from these programs will support Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) providing affordable financing and…
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…
Federal Reserve: From Income to Consumption Inequality? Looking through the Lens of Motor Vehicle Purchases
Wendy Dunn and Maria D. Tito1 Rising income inequality in the United States over the past several decades has been well documented in the economics literature.2 Recent studies have also looked at the dispersion in consumption, since it more accurately captures disparities in economic well-being. Here, however, the findings are mixed–while some authors find the…
Federal Reserve: New Interactive Data Tools Added to Website for the Financial Accounts of the United States
The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday added three new tools to its web site to provide interactive access to data from the Board’s Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1) release, which tracks the aggregate wealth of U.S. households and other economic sectors. The data visualization tools show, at a glance, the evolution of key…
Federal Reserve: Inequality in 3-D – Income, Consumption and Wealth
Finance and Economics Discussion Series (FEDS) Inequality in 3-D: Income, Consumption, and Wealth (PDF) by Jonathan Fisher, David Johnson, Timothy Smeeding, and Jeffrey Thompson Abstract: We do not need to and should not have to choose amongst income, consumption, or wealth as the superior measure of well-being. All three individually and jointly determine well-being. We…