Tag Archives: The Urban Institute

New tool shows how financing affordable housing without subsidies is almost impossible for developers to build homes that are affordable for low- or extremely low-income families.

Recently, Dave Stevens, head of the Mortgage Bankers Association, revealed a shocking statistic—the GSEs denied 56 percent of African American mortgage applicants. Many, including Fannie Mae, responded that the MBA's numbers overestimated the denial rate for minorities. A new blog post from the Urban Institute commented that the MBA’s denial rate wasn't too high; rather, it was much too low.

After years of too-loose and then too-tight credit access, average FICO scores are now slowly floating down, and the market looks a little more open for low-score borrowers. But do these steady declines really indicate a loosening in standards among lenders? “Afraid not,” say researchers at the Urban Institute’s (UI) Housing Finance Policy Center.

A study by the Urban Institute calls for "expanding the credit box" in order to promote not only a housing recovery, but an overall economic recovery. The report estimated, "1.22 million fewer purchase mortgages were made in 2012 than would have been the case had credit availability remained at 2001 levels."