Most forecasts for 2016 come to the same conclusions as those of the National Association of Realtors‒‒optimistic about steady growth, but tempered with an understanding that growth will be more modest this year. As Fannie Mae sees it, growth in the U.S. housing market will continue for its seventh straight year, but affordability will shrink, especially in the lower end of the housing market.
Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group expects consumer spending to underpin economic growth this year, as it did in 2015, and for residential investment and government spending to help drive growth, despite some drag from net exports. Overall, the ESR Group expects the economy to grow 2 point 2 percent and the pace of improvement in total home sales should be about 4 percent in 2016.
HUD has dismissed a complaint against U.S. Bank filed by non-profit National Fair Housing Alliance in 2012 alleging that the bank was in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The complaint alleged that U.S. Bank failed to maintain REO properties in predominantly African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods as well as it was maintaining REO properties in predominantly white communities. HUD’s investigation found no evidence that U.S. Bank had violated the Fair Housing Act.