On Wednesday, March 10, the House Financial Services Committee will present a virtual hearing, Justice for All: Achieving Racial Equity Through Fair Access to Housing and Financial Services [1] at 10:00 a.m. EST.
While record-low rates continue to drive the housing market, there remains many who cannot afford to buy. A recent report by the CFPB [2] found that Black and Hispanic families are more than twice as likely to report being behind on their housing payments than White families. The Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) just boosted the government’s affordable housing goals with an influx of more than $1 billion to produce and preserve affordable housing [3] throughout the country.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services will open the hearing [1]. Just last month, Rep. Waters opened a Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations meeting [4] on minority borrowing, stating [5]: “The effects of decades of government-sanctioned discrimination continue to plague our housing and lending markets today, ultimately hindering the ability of households of color to build equity and accumulate wealth through homeownership relative to White households. Since home equity is the primary source of wealth for most families, disparities in homeownership and home equity are key drivers of the racial wealth gap.”
Here's what else is happening in The Week Ahead:
- MBA Forbearance and Call Volume Survey [6] (Monday)
- FHFA Home Price Index [7] (Tuesday)
- MBA Weekly Applications Survey [8] (Wednesday)
- Realtor.com Weekly Housing Market Recap [9] (Wednesday)
- U.S. Census Bureau New Residential Sales report [10] (Wednesday)
- Realtor.com’s Housing Market Recovery Index [11] (Thursday)
- Realtor.com’s Weekly Housing Trends View [12] (Thursday)
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey [13] (Thursday)
- NAR Pending Home Sales report [14] (Thursday)
- Black Knight weekly forbearance data [15] (Friday)