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News & Events
Roundtable Discussion on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan
Proclaimed “the most comprehensive of all government efforts to close the housing supply shortfall in history,” the Biden-Harris Administration released a Housing Supply Action Plan in May 2022 to address the nation’s housing shortage. To discuss the plan and its implications at the local level, The National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities at Case Western Reserve University’s Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, and the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley held a joint webinar on October 28th.
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Research & Policy
Will the GSEs Repeat 2007 - 2009’s Large Losses?
The housing market has just experienced one of the largest upcycles in history. But what goes up usually does eventually come down - and very rapidly in this case. During the last major downcycle, i.e., when the mortgage bubble burst 15 years ago, the two companies lost the confidence of the markets as they began to suffer massive losses. So, given this history, it is reasonable to ask: Did the two GSEs forget the lessons of the past? Are they about to suffer those massive losses again?
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News & Events
Policy Breakfast: Measuring the Success of Housing Our Neighbors
On Monday, October 3, 2022 NYU Furman Center held a hybrid Policy Breakfast titled Measuring the Success of Housing Our Neighbors. The discussion examined the five-pillar plan entitled Housing Our Neighbors, which the Adams Administration released earlier this Spring to address New York City’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis. Panelists discussed how to evaluate progress towards the city’s housing goals, and the factors and data that can be used for guidance.
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The Latest GSE Stress Test Results: Showcasing the Need for Regulatory Capital Revision (Part 2)
On August 11, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator and conservator of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), released the latest annual regulatory stress test results for the two firms, based upon their yearend 2021 financial statements. This is the ninth year of the legally-mandated test, which has at its core the “severe adverse” economic scenario produced by the Federal Reserve. This second of a two-part series shows how the stress test result—i.e., a $4.5 billion loss for the two GSEs combined—is consistent with a level of required capital for the GSEs that is conservatively calculated to be in the $120-135 billion range.
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The Latest GSE Stress Test Results: Confirming a Major De-risking Success (Part 1)
On August 11, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator and conservator of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), released the latest annual stress test results for the two firms. This is the ninth year for the GSEs to be subject to the legally-mandated test, which reflects the “severe adverse” economic scenario produced by the Federal Reserve being applied to the companies’ year-end 2021 financial statements.
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Research & Policy
When Will Government Control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac End? (Part 2)
Part 1 of this series described how when the GSEs were put into conservatorship under the Bush administration, the prevailing view was that fundamental reform of their operations was a necessary prerequisite to ending government control. Part 2 addresses two related issues how much longer can we expect government control to last, and what are the most important steps that can be taken in the near term to prepare the companies for an exit to happen as expeditiously as possible, once the FHFA and Treasury decide to go ahead.
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Research & Policy
When Will Government Control of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae End? (Part 1)
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that have long funded roughly half of all single-family mortgages in America, were placed under government control on September 7, 2008, at the height of the financial crisis then underway. Under four presidential administrations, a handful of key policy decisions cumulatively extended that control far longer than anyone would have originally predicted; with its fourteenth anniversary approaching, moreover, there is arguably no end in sight. This article, the first of a two-part series, describes those decisions, as well as the background and thinking behind them.
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Research & Policy
Advancing Choice in the Housing Choice Voucher Program: Source of Income Protections and Locational Outcomes
In a new NYU Wagner Research Paper, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Katherine O’Regan, and Katharine WH Harwood used data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to better understand the impact of source of income (SOI) laws on locational outcomes. These laws prohibit discrimination based on the income a tenant uses to pay rent and thus make it unlawful to refuse to rent to a household on the grounds that it participates in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.
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Research & Policy
The Economic Challenge for the Rent Guidelines Board: Balancing Long-Term Affordability in Rent Stabilized Housing
The responsibility for overseeing the economic viability and affordability of rent stabilized housing rests with the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), which sets annual rent adjustments for rent stabilized apartments. Given the importance of the rent stabilized apartment stock, it is essential to think hard about how to preserve both its quality and quantity.
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News & Events
Policy Breakfast: The Future of 421-a and Housing Development
On February 24th, the NYU Furman Center hosted a virtual policy breakfast titled: ‘The future of 421-a and Housing Development’. Our panelists offered a range of perspectives on the current 421-a program and its role in the future of the city’s housing policy. The debate touched on a host of interconnected issues, including the city’s arcane property tax system and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, a relatively new Zoning Resolution requirement that significantly upzoned residential lots include income-restricted housing.
