| HUD Warns Against Blanket Ex-Offender Bans |
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| Copyright: Digital Storm |
HUD
issued fair housing guidance yesterday that extends protections for individuals
with criminal histories. This guidance builds on similar policies issued by HUD
last year that only applied to public and federal-assisted housing. Most
notably, the new guidance prohibits the use of arrest records to deny residency
and denials based on convictions must consider the nature and severity of the
incident.
Overall, the guidance seeks to end blanket exclusions of prospective
residents based on criminal history in favor of a more individualized approach
that is more narrowly tailored to achieve property safety and security goals.
NMHC’s Paula Cino was quoted in a related Wall
Street Journal article, which was also published yesterday. “We all want to
feel safe in our homes,” emphasized Cino. “It is critical to balance the
housing needs for everybody with providing a safe and secure community.” |
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| WEBINAR |
| Join Us: Fair Housing Webinar on April 28 |
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NMHC and NAA will host a webinar on our new white paper entitled, “Fair
Housing: Familial Status and Occupancy,” on Thursday, April 28 from 2 to 3 p.m.
EDT. This in-depth white paper discusses fair housing protections for families
and reviews seemingly routine business practices that could give rise to Fair
Housing Act complaints. Mike Skojec, Partner at Ballard Spahr LLP, will provide
insight into the white paper, including the areas most impacted by familial
status claims such as amenity operations, leasing policies and safety rules. Register today! |
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| GSE REFORM |
| Leading Experts Call for Merging Fannie and Freddie |
On March 23, a group of leading experts on housing
finance and domestic economic policy released a paper entitled, “A
Promising Road to GSE Reform,” outlining a path
forward for reform of the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac. The paper recommends that
they be removed from conservatorship, merged into one entity referred to as the
National Mortgage Reinsurance Corporation (NMRC), and provided with an explicit
guarantee for all future securitization activity.
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| DUTY TO SERVE |
| Industry Follows Up on Fannie, Freddie Duty to Serve Plans |
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NMHC and NAA provided in-depth feedback to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on the
agency’s draft “Duty to Serve” proposal on March 17. The proposal focuses on
boosting mortgage finance by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) in
underserved markets for very low, low and moderate income families. The
proposal concentrates on preserving affordable housing, adopting policies that
help low-income borrowers purchase manufactured housing, and increasing
the availability of affordable mortgage credit in rural areas. |
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| DIVERSITY |
| A Gender Pay Gap in Commercial Real Estate Continues |
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Commercial real estate leaders should make mentoring and sponsorship
for women a priority, consider unconscious bias, and also check for pay
disparities between men and women, suggests CREW Network’s 2015 benchmark study.
The MIT Center for Real Estate served as CREW’s independent research partner to
conduct the study. The report – CREW’s third comprehensive study measuring pay,
advancement and career satisfaction among both women and men – covers
management, brokerage, development and finance in commercial real estate. NMHC
is a sponsor of the report. |
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| FLOOD |
| House Committee Says It's Time to Privatize Flood Insurance |
On March 23, the House Budget Committee report recommended
privatizing flood insurance as part of its Fiscal Year 2017 budget proposal as
a way to cut Federal Government costs. The report outlined that there was
“little to no” private sector alternative to the National Flood Insurance
Program (NFIP), which places the cost on taxpayers. According to the report,
NFIP is currently $23 billion in debt and will not recover under its current
structure given the likelihood of more natural disasters like Hurricanes
Katrina and Sandy. Multifamily firms with federally regulated and insured
mortgages on properties in high-risk areas are required by law to purchase
flood insurance.
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| CAPITAL MARKETS |
| CMBS Market Struggles with Regulation Burdens, Volatile Markets |
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Beginning
in the summer of 2015, the Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) market
ran into a headwind of interest rate volatility, commodity price collapse,
investors unease and regulatory burdens. As a result, the new issuance volume
for CMBS has slowed dramatically. Once estimated to top $100 billion in new
issuance in 2016, the new forecasts are coming in as low as $40 billion. The
market is clearly struggling to find firm ground on what has been an earthquake
of challenges. |
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| PATENT REFORM |
| Senate Bill Aims to Curb Costly Drain of Patent Trolls |
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Introduced in the
Senate this week, the “Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act of 2016”
aims to help address the rise in patent infringement claims against end user
businesses like apartment firms. The bill would require that these claims be
filed in courts where the defendant is actually located or where the alleged
infringement took place. Ultimately, it would prevent patent trolls from filing
their often baseless claims in jurisdictions that are considered “friendly” to
their cause. The legislation is clearly needed with nearly half of all new
patent claims being filed in just one judicial district – the Eastern District
of Texas. Frivolous, unsupported patent infringement claims are a costly drain
for the multifamily industry, the real estate sector and economy as a whole. |
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| RENT CONTROL |
| Keeping You Informed: Rent Control Laws by State |
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NMHC and NAA recently updated our online rent control
table to reflect the latest information by state. Currently, five states have
rent control laws in place, eleven states are without rent control policies and
the remainder have a preemption to rent control. The multifamily industry
maintains the viewpoint that rent control makes housing shortages worse, causes
existing buildings to deteriorate and disproportionately benefits higher-income
households. Notably, Forbes magazine listed rent control as one of the 10 worst
economic ideas of the 20th century. We continue to urge
lawmakers to reject price controls and pursue alternatives like voucher-based
rental assistance in order to better address critical affordable housing
shortages. |
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| WHITE HOUSE |
| Top Advisor to President Obama on GSE Reform, Affordability Leaves |
Michael Stegman, the senior Obama Administration
official working on reform efforts for the Government-Sponsored Enterprises
(GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, left the President’s National Economic Council
(NEC) on March 25. Stegman also played a significant
role when it came to affordable housing initiatives. His departure represents
the most recent exit of a senior housing policy official. Ultimately, this
further reduces the likelihood of any significant action on GSE reform before the
end of the year.
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| AFFORDABLE HOUSING |
| Industry Takes ACTION on LIHTC |
NMHC and NAA are encouraging lawmakers to enhance the Low-Income Housing
Tax Credit (LIHTC) by increasing program resources to promote the production of
more affordable housing. The nation is short 3.9
million affordable units for extremely low-income households. Recently, we
supported an ACTION Coalition letter with more than 1,300 signatories that
calls for Congress to expand housing credit authority by 50 percent and allow
states to convert a portion of their private activity bond volume cap into
housing credit authority.
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| INCOME LIMITS |
| Check the 2016 Area Median Income Limits Today |
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HUD recently released its fiscal year 2016 Area Median Income Limits (AMIs). AMIs are used to set eligibility thresholds for several federal subsidy programs, including the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and Section 8 programs. Apartment owners, developers and managers should check the new income limits for the areas where they operate, as these new income limits are now in effect for federal programs. |
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| FLOOD INSURANCE RATES |
| Flood Insurance Rates on the Upswing |
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The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) experienced a scheduled rise in rates on April 1 as a result of reforms enacted by Congress in 2012 and 2014. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the average increase is 9 percent for property owners with most capped at 15 percent. The increases primarily impact single-family homeowners, but some apartment communities and businesses could be impacted. |
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| NMHC EVENTS |
| Don't Miss It: NMHC's 2016 Spring Board Meeting in Chicago |
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Register today for one of NMHC's most exclusive meetings of
the year, the 2016 NMHC Spring Board of Directors Meeting, May 18-20 at the
Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. The Spring Board Meeting brings together top
executives from the industry's leading firms to candidly share information and
insight on key multifamily topics. A few speaker highlights include: CNN Senior
Political Commentator David Axelrod; Equity Group Investments
Chairman Sam Zell; Academic, Researcher, Writer and Entrepreneur Vivek
Wadhwa; and Former Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
The three-day meeting will include a variety of panels covering topics such as
cybersecurity and the risk landscape, innovative business models for rental
housing, an analysis of capital markets and much more. The Spring Board Meeting
is open to NMHC Executive Committee and Board of Directors members only. |
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| Spring Break is Over: Congress Heads Back to Work |
No doubt there are many distractions in Washington these
days, including the fight over U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, the
presidential campaign and party convention planning. However, as always, NMHC
remains laser focused on keeping the concerns of the multifamily industry front
and center.
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Why are Americans So Angry About the 2016 Election?
From Facebook to the water cooler to bitter family dinner debates, it does seem
like Americans are really angry about the 2016 election and the state of the
nation. But the data shows that our overall sense of satisfaction with the
economy and more doesn’t actually compute – and something else is driving the
outpouring of hostility over the elections. What’s really going on? Find out
below.
Read
More
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