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Research & Policy
Implications and Geography of Office to Housing Conversions
In their “Making New York Work for Everyone” plan, released in January, Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul expressed eagerness to build more housing in New York City’s business districts after COVID. But due to significant financing, zoning, and design challenges in converting office buildings to residential, only select offices make good candidates for conversion, and few offices have actually converted in recent years. This post describes three resources to help inform the conversions debate.
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Research & Policy
Current GSE Guarantee Fees Are Too Low to Be Consistent with Regulatory Capital: Does This Mean a Large Increase Is Coming?
The average guarantee fee (G-fee) of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), who currently finance about half of the nearly $13 trillion of outstanding first-lien single-family mortgages in the country, is among the most closely-watched numbers by housing finance policymakers and the mortgage lending industry. The G-fee level has been strategically steady since it rose to its current range (between 0.45 percent to 0.49 percent) in 2014, after having been purposefully increased by the FHFA and the two GSEs in prior years. Unfortunately, that level began to be called into question by the adoption in 2020 of a new and much higher capital requirement by the FHFA, which in turn seems to require a much higher average G-fee. As such a higher G-fee has not yet been seen, it creates a major policy uncertainty overhanging the mortgage lending system – is a big G-fee increase inevitably coming?
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Research & Policy
Manufactured Housing Is a Good Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing - Except When It’s Not: Key Facts and Figures, and Some Unusual Economics (Part 1)
Manufactured housing (MH), the official name for what have historically been called mobile homes, comprises the most prominent type of factory-built housing in the US. This article aims to take a fresh look at MH to determine just how much it truly can be a large-scale natural source of additional affordable housing, whether owner-occupied or rental, as claimed by its supporters in the industry and policy community. As Part 1 of a three-part series, this article will go over some basic facts and figures about MH.
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Research & Policy
Eviction practices across subsidized housing in New York State
In a new NYU Furman Center data brief, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Katherine O’Regan, and Ellie Lochhead used data on eviction cases from the New York State Office of Court Administration (OCA) to compare eviction patterns in different types of place-based subsidized housing in New York City and in other jurisdictions across New York State from 2016 to 2021. Cases filed due to non-payment of rent are the focus of the brief and represent the majority of eviction filings.
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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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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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Research & Policy
The Academic Effects of Chronic Exposure to Neighborhood Violence
Since the pandemic began, the city has experienced a significant increase in gun violence and homicide which can lead to emotional distress, behavioral changes, and detrimental cognitive effects for students. This paper examines the differences between students with varying levels of crime exposure and finds that increased exposure results in lower English Language Arts (ELA) and math exam scores. The paper’s regression models suggest that exposure to violence had an adverse effect on reading and math test scores for students, and the effects increased with the number of violent crimes.
