Housing

The FDIC is launching joint ventures to market $33 billion of commercial real estate loans from the failed Signature Bank, prioritizing its statutory obligation to preserve low-income housing availability.

A former insider wants the Federal Home Loan Bank System's regulator to require its 11 regional banks to balance members' liquidity needs with the system's public mission to fund affordable housing and community development programs.

The lack of affordable housing is becoming an increasingly acute political and economic problem. But a few small tweaks to a Federal Housing Administration loan program could unlock prospective homeowners' potential to solve that problem for themselves.

A lack of affordable starter homes, increasing homelessness and stubbornly high prices for the homes that already exist have created a pickle that only careful planning and political buy-in can solve.

As the Federal Housing Finance Agency considers how to prepare the system for the future, it can keep member liquidity steady while still boosting affordable housing.

It would be unwise to restrict the use of Home Loan bank advances to housing-related lending.

The Federal Home Loan Banks claim that liquidity in-and-of-itself supports affordable housing, while the Federal Housing Finance Agency seems to think the mission should be more directly tethered to housing.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency may have gotten more than it bargained for in its review of the Home Loan banks, but there is little doubt that the effort will result in significant structural change.

Federal Home Loan banks aren't doing enough to address the shortage of affordable housing in the U.S., FHFA Director Sandra Thompson says. Some of their members are instead using advances to manage liquidity and perhaps engaging in crypto-related and other activities that put the Deposit Insurance Fund at risk, she says.

The homeownership gap between Black and white populations has widened in the years since the Great Recession, putting obstacles in the way of achieving wealth for a large percentage of Americans. How did we get here, and what do the housing and home lending industries need to do to change the current course?