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Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news items that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"Construction of single-family homes cooled off slightly in January after surging in the final month last year. But a rebound in volatile apartment construction kept builders busy and pushed housing starts to their highest level in more than three years. The Commerce Department said Thursday that builders broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 699,000 homes in January. That's up 1.5 percent from December and the highest level since October 2008. Construction began on 508,000 single-family homes last month. That's a 1 percent drop from December and the first decline in four months. Still, December single-family homes were revised up strongly to show builders started 513,000 homes a 12 percent gain from November." Read more here.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news items that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"After more than a year of negotiations, attorneys general from more than 40 states signed on to a proposed settlement agreement with five of the nation's largest mortgage servicers over “robo-signing” foreclosure processing abuses, according to the lead negotiator, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. 'This enables us to move forward into the very final stages of remaining work. Federal and state officials, as well as representatives from the banks, continue to address matters that they must complete before finalizing any settlement,' Miller said in a statement released late Monday. The deal with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Ally Financial will reportedly total $25 billion. Some $17 billion of that would go toward writing down mortgage principal for an estimated 850,000 troubled borrowers, $3 billion could go toward restitution payments of $1,500 each to borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure, and the rest could go to state funds for foreclosure relief, according to reports and estimates by Inside Mortgage Finance." Read more here.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news items that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, was sharply questioned by members of a House committee about the Fed’s announcement last week that it planned to hold short-term interest rates near zero until late 2014, a measure that the Fed described as necessary to support a faster pace of economic recovery. 'I think this policy runs the great risk of fueling asset bubbles, destabilizing prices and eventually eroding the value of the dollar,' said Representative Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the House Budget Committee... Mr. Bernanke repeated the Fed’s assessment, released last week, that the pace of growth would increase modestly this year, but that the economy still faced significant challenges, including the depressed state of the housing market and the risk that problems in Europe would infect the rest of the world. Read more here.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news items that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"With the battle for the Republican presidential nomination moved to Florida, the candidates find themselves confronted with a question central to the health of the state’s weak job market: What are their plans for solving the housing mess? Florida’s economy rests heavily on housing, which has struggled in the years since the bubble burst. New construction has slowed to a crawl and home prices have tumbled, sapping consumer confidence, choking tax revenue and leaving the state with one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates.
President Obama has acknowledged that his housing policies have been ineffective, an assertion vividly illustrated by the many half-built developments and large inventory of financially distressed properties that dot the Florida landscape. That might sound like a political opportunity for the GOP candidates, particularly in Florida, which is seen as pivotal to their party’s chances to capture the White House. But so far, the candidates have not been specific on how they would address the housing problem." Read more here.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news articles that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"An overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is unlikely again this year despite recent Republican efforts to move the issue up the agenda. Congressional Republicans, along with some Democrats — and even GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich — are renewing calls to craft an agreement to reduce the involvement of Fannie and Freddie in the nation's mortgage market. But without a broader accord, passage of any legislation this year is slim, housing experts say." Read more here.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news articles that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said expanding the role of government-controlled mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could speed a housing market recovery and lift the overall economy. In a white paper to leading members of Congress, the Fed outlined an array of steps that could be taken to help the housing sector. It focused on ways to keep a lid on the vast inventory of unsold homes, make it easier for borrowers to get credit and contain an onslaught of foreclosures." Read more here.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news articles that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"Home construction has begun a gradual rebound and likely added to the nation's economic growth in 2011. The chief reason is apartments are being built almost twice as fast as two years ago. Renting is the only option for many people who have lost their jobs, their homes or both. Private residential construction increased 2 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted $522.3 billion. It was the fifth consecutive gain. Single-family construction rose 1.5 percent while multi-family construction including apartments climbed 1.3 percent. The category that covers home remodeling rose 9.5 percent." Read more here.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news articles that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news articles that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"After half a decade of withering sales and slumping prices, there are strong and diverse signs that the single-family housing market is poised for a rebound. In some metropolitan areas, the market has bottomed, with both sales and prices on the rise and foreclosures on the decline. This contrarian — and largely overlooked — thesis flies in the face of the persistent gloom that has nagged the industry since 2007, when the subprime crisis flared." Read more here.
Throughout the week, the BPC Housing Commission will highlight news articles that address critical developments in housing policy. Any views expressed in the content posted on this forum do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, its co-chairs or the Bipartisan Policy Center.
"It's always worth repeating: If you have a question about the weak recovery, the answer comes back to housing. Let's try a few. Why do consumers feel so gutted? To begin with, a fifth of mortgages are underwater. Half of families aren't personally investing in the stock market. Their sense of future wealth depends on the value of their home. They're much less likely to spend normally when their house feels like a losing investment. Why is employment growth so slow? To begin with, we don't need any more houses, so we don't need many more construction workers to build them. That's a big deal. 'The decline in construction accounts for nearly 40 percent of the total decline in employment between December 2007 and February 2010,' the St Louis Federal Reserve found..." Read more here.
The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission aims to reform the nation’s housing policy by crafting a package of realistic and actionable policy recommendations that consider the near-term and address the long-term challenges in the sector.
With roughly 5 to 6 million new renter households expected to form over the next ten years, BPC’s Housing Commission is considering the policy implications of how supply and demand will allow for people to choose a housing options that best fits their needs and preferences.
Large numbers of Baby Boomers may move out of their current homes over the next decade. The extent to which younger Echo Boomer households are in a position to buy those homes will affect neighborhood stability and the demand for new construction.
Based on the housing industry’s average share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 1980 to 2007, the infographic illustrates that 2.3 percent or $350 billion is “missing” in potential growth.
