The Broader Market

by Sarah Rosen Wartell and Jordan Eizenga

The changes to the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Refinance Program announced last week by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are welcome, but more can be done to expand access to the program and allow additional struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgage at today’s historically low interest rates.

In October the two taxpayer-backed mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in conjunction with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, released broad guidelines for how to increase mortgage refinancings through the Home Affordable Refinancing Program, or HARP, for homeowners who are “underwater” on their mortgages, owing more than the value of their homes. HARP, launched in early 2009, did not have the effect it was expected to as too few borrowers refinanced through the program. The proposed changes unveiled in October were designed to overcome this lack of take-up by making the program more attractive to both borrowers and lenders.

For more, see here.

by Jordan Eizenga

Our still-ailing housing markets need all the first-time homebuyers and affordable rental housing investors we can find. The New Issue Bond Program, which the Department of the Treasury launched in 2009 to help state and local housing finance agencies continue financing housing for working families during the housing crisis, is set to expire at the end of 2011. The program’s imminent expiration threatens access to affordable rental housing and homeownership for many of those hardest hit by the housing crisis.

Fortunately, Treasury has the authority to extend the program beyond its current deadline. With half of all American renters devoting more than a third of their income to housing alone, and with private lenders writing off struggling communities and households that the housing finance agencies are uniquely able to serve, Treasury should extend the existing authority of the New Issue Bond Program so that it remains available through at least the end of 2012.[1]

For more of the article, see here.

by Sarah Rosen Wartell, David Min, and Jordan Eizenga

Our nation’s slowing economic recovery prompted policymakers to consider ways to shore up consumer demand and get our economy moving again. One central focus of these efforts was to find ways to improve the weak housing markets, where hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes are keeping home values down and depressing household wealth, thus complicating efforts to generate demand and create jobs.

The Obama administration already had in place an important program that had the potential to strengthen the housing market, stimulate the economy, and increase employment. To combat the foreclosure crisis, the administration created the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP for short, shortly after President Barack Obama took office.

by Sarah Rosen Wartell, David M. Abromowitz, Bracken Hendricks, Alon Cohen, Jordan Eizenga, and John Griffiths

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, in consultation with the Departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development, last month issued a “request for information” to solicit ideas for selling or otherwise disposing of foreclosed properties owned by the Federal Housing Administration and the two mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which are under government conservatorship. The housing team at the Center for American Progress responded to FHFA’s request for information on the disposition of government-owned foreclosed homes. This is a summary of our response. (The full response letter can be downloaded here.)

The following is a great article calling on the Obama administration to be bold in its job creation agenda. Enjoy.

by Michael Ettlinger, Donna Cooper, Sarah Rosen Wartell, and Bracken Hendricks

When President Barack Obama announces his jobs plan in September, it should be a plan that matches the scale of the problem. With millions unemployed and job creation sluggish, this is not the time to be timid.

In particular, the president needs to offer much more than proposals that conservatives in Congress might support—tax cuts that wouldn’t be nearly as effective as the alternatives. The president’s proposals also will have to go well beyond simply extending provisions such as payroll tax cuts that are set to expire. With millions of unemployed Americans, the plan needs to be one that will improve the economy, not just tread water. And the plan needs to create jobs fast, not just lay the groundwork for jobs in the future.

In short, the plan should be a sharp contrast to the economically nonsensical agenda his political opposition is passionately arguing for. The idea that simply slashing government programs and taxes is the key to economic success is a tried and failed strategy. The tax system we have now is a tax system inherited from President George W. Bush. We’ve seen the results. Economists across the political spectrum agree that spending cuts in a weak economy run counter to everything we know about getting a country out of an economic hole. President Obama should not meet halfway those who only offer economic incoherence. He should take them head on.

For the rest of the article, see here.

by David Min, Jordan Eizenga and John Griffith

The announcement yesterday that the Obama administration will consider proposals to sell off large numbers of government-owned foreclosed homes is an important step toward a new system of U.S. housing finance. If designed well, this initiative could generate much-needed revenue for the government, expand the quantity of energy efficient, affordable housing to thousands of American families, and create well-paying jobs.

Government-supported entities own hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes, mostly from mortgages insured before the housing bubble burst. These owners include the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Most of these so-called “real-estate owned” or “REO” properties are currently unoccupied and losing value as they deteriorate.

The White House addressed this issue yesterday by releasing a public solicitation for proposals on how to deal with this growing stock of REO properties. Their goal is to reduce the number of foreclosed homes in a way that minimizes taxpayer losses, expands affordable housing, and addresses property repair and rehabilitation needs.

For more of this article, see here.

by Alon Cohen and Jordan Eizenga

The federal government is holding a significant number of foreclosed properties from mortgages it guaranteed before the housing bubble burst. The weak housing market would surely yield depressed prices if the government were to sell off these properties en masse. So what should we do with our growing stock of foreclosed homes? And can we put Americans back to work in the process?

Here’s what we propose: Institutions that hold tens or hundreds of thousands of these properties—both private institutions and those backed by the government, such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration, or FHA—should rehabilitate, retrofit, weatherize, and rent them or sell them to investors.

For the rest of the article, see here.