Research

HUD: $5.5 Million Awarded to HBCUs to Conduct Housing and Community Development Research

Funding a part of HUD efforts to diversify housing research Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced awards totaling $5.5 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to Texas Southern University and North Carolina A&T University to establish or bolster existing Centers of Excellence (COE) that conduct housing and community…

HUD: Process Begins to Strengthen Standards for Conditions in HUD Assisted and Insured Housing

Public comment on proposed scoring methodology for inspections now open for the first time in 20+ years as part of system-wide overhaul Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published the proposed scoring notice for the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) in the Federal Register. This updated scoring notice,…

FHFA: House Price Index Up 0.2 Percent in January 2023; Up 5.3 Percent from Last Year

U.S. house prices rose in January, up 0.2 percent from December, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index (HPI®). House prices rose 5.3 percent from January 2022 to January 2023. The previously reported 0.1 percent price decline in December 2022 remained unchanged. For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes…

ABA: Credit Card Market Continued to Normalize in Third Quarter 2022

Consumers continued to effectively manage their credit obligations despite economic headwinds in the third quarter of 2022, according to the American Bankers Association’s latest quarterly Credit Card Market Monitor. The report found that the effective finance charge yield (which measures interest payments relative to total outstanding credit) increased, reflecting the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes…

Census Bureau: Household Pulse Survey Phase 3.8 Monthly Data Released

 The U.S. Census Bureau today released new data from phase 3.8 of the experimental Household Pulse Survey (HPS). The HPS is an effort by the Census Bureau and other federal statistical agencies to inform federal and state response and recovery planning by providing near real-time data on the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and…

HUD and Census Bureau: New Residential Sales Report Issued for February 2023

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential sales statistics for February 2023: New Home Sales Sales of new single‐family houses in February 2023 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 640,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census…

FHFA: Fourth Quarter 2022 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report Released

More than 6.7 million troubled homeowners helped during conservatorships The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today released its fourth quarter 2022 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report. The report shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) completed 52,469 foreclosure prevention actions during the quarter, raising the total number of homeowners who have been helped…

ABA: New Report Shows Farm Bank Lending Increased in 2022

Banks reported holding over 1.1 million small farm loans worth $69 billion. Despite headwinds in 2022 due to supply chain disruptions, shocks to supply and demand, volatility in commodity prices, and geopolitical uncertainty, agricultural lending by U.S. farm banks increased 8.1% in 2022 to $103.1 billion, according to the American Bankers Association’s annual Farm Bank Performance…

CDFI Fund: Update Provided on the Implementation of the 2016-2020 American Community Survey Datasets

In June 2022, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced a plan for releasing updated program eligibility information based upon Census Bureau data from the American Community Survey (ACS) 2016-2020 5-year data series. Eligibility requirements for the Bank Enterprise Award Program (BEA Program), Capital Magnet Fund (CMF), Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program), Native…

CFPB: Tool Enhanced to Promote Competition and Comparison Shopping in Credit Card Market

Price transparency will help families find better credit card deals in a time of rising interest rates Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) launched an improved survey of credit card issuers that can help consumers and families compare interest rates and other features when shopping for a new credit card. Americans pay $120 billion…