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Economist Breaks Down Why Obama Omitted Housing Policy From State of the Union Address

President Barack Obama State of the Union Address [1]Aside from a brief reference to his announcement [2] two weeks ago that the Federal Housing Agency (FHA [3]) would be lowering its mortgage insurance premiums, President Barack Obama did not mention housing policy Tuesday night during his hour-long State of the Union Address [4].

Instead the president chose to focus his remarks on the progress of the nation’s economic recovery, and in particular job creation, in the last few years since he has been in office.

The Obama Administration has heavily touted housing policy and expanding access to credit in recent months. In addition to the lower insurance premium announcement, in early December the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA [5]) announced [6] it would be lowering the mortgage down payment requirement to 3 percent for qualifying buyers on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages. In a report released last week [7], Fitch Ratings predicted a big year for housing in 2015 based on the government’s actions in recent months. Obama spoke in Phoenix [8] earlier this month for the express purpose of praising the housing industry’s progress toward recovery.

So with all the administration’s talk and actions surrounding housing policy in the last year, why was the topic noticeably absent from the State of the Union Address?

Trulia [9] chief economist Jed Kolko suggested three reasons why housing policy was omitted from the address: the urgency has faded; the most pressing housing challenges are local, not national; and the best housing policy is economic policy.