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News & Events
Mark Willis Defends Record of Community Reinvestment Act
January 17, 2013 – Furman Center research fellow Mark Willis argued in a co-authored editorial Wednesday that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) did not encourage risky loan practices in the lead up to the financial crisis. The CRA, enacted in 1977 and intended to expand access to credit and reduce credit related discrimination, is a regular target of groups aiming to place greater responsibility for the mortgage crisis on government. The editorial was prompted by a recent National Bureau of Economic Research article that claims to make a case against law. To clear the record, the editorial was accompanied by a report which clearly refutes claims that the law supported risky loan practices. Read the editorial here, and the report here.
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Research & Policy
FACT BRIEF: NYC’s Low Rental Registration Compliance Could Interfere with Emergency Response
January 15, 2013 – In emergency situations like Hurricane Sandy, the city’s system for tracking rental property owners can serve as a crucial resource. However, a new Furman Center report finds that the vast majority of landlords required to register with the city fail to do so. Only 23 percent of rental properties are registered with the city, and only 61 percent of NYC’s renters live in buildings with current registrations. The report outlines strategies for boosting rental registration to help make the registration ordinance a fully effective resource, including greater outreach and stronger penalties. See the press release or read the full report here.
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Research & Policy
Furman Center Researchers Produce Brief on Housing During and After the Great Recession
November 20, 2012 – Condensing a wide array of data from the beginning of the housing crisis in 2006 to today, Furman Center Co-Director Ingrid Gould Ellen and former Research Fellow Samuel Dastrup provide a brief overview of housing market trends during and after the recent recession in the report, “Housing and the Great Recession.” The report, which looks at the drop in home prices and the rise in foreclosures, also considers which regions and social groups have been hardest hit. The report is part of a series on the effects of the recession, and is produced in conjunction with the Russell Sage Foundation and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. Read the full report here and find out more about the series here.
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Research & Policy
Ingrid Gould Ellen and Jessica Yager Publish Commentary in “Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity”
November 20, 2012 – The authors summarize Furman Center research showing that families with vouchers are not reaching neighborhoods that are substantially different than those lived in by other low-income families, despite the fact that the voucher program provides a relatively large subsidy and was designed, in part, to provide a broad set of housing choices. They argue that these findings raise important questions for policymakers about whether and what barriers to mobility are impeding the ability of families to move to better neighborhoods. Read the commentary here.
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Research & Policy
Furman Center Releases Report on Assisted Housing and Education
November 14, 2012 - A new Furman Center/Moelis Institute report, “Do Federally Assisted Households Have Access to High Performing Public Schools?,” finds that that families in Project-based Section 8 developments and Public Housing and recipients of Housing Choice Vouchers typically live near schools with lower test scores than the schools near other poor families. Only families in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) housing have access to schools that are slightly better than the schools available to other low-income families. The report also finds that, despite the flexibility provided by vouchers, families receiving Housing Choice Vouchers, on average, live near lower performing schools than families in Project-based Section 8 or LIHTC developments. The report also provides results for the 100 largest metropolitan areas, which show that assisted households tend to live near relatively higher performing schools in metropolitan areas with certain characteristics, including smaller size and less racial segregation. Read the full report here.
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Research & Policy
Furman Center Releases Policy Brief on LIHTC Program Tenants
October 22, 2012: A new analysis released by the Furman Center and its Moelis Institute for Affordable Housing Policy, “What Can We Learn about the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program by Looking at Tenants?” examines LIHTC tenant income to assess the extent to which the program’s target demographic is served. The brief finds that forty percent of LIHTC units house extremely low-income (ELI) households. In addition, the report finds that more than 70 percent of ELI households are in units receiving some form of rental assistance, which suggests that additional subsidies are crucial to the functionality of the program. In terms of rent burden, LIHTC tenants, particularly those without rental assistance, have higher rent burdens than HUD tenants. The full report may be accessed here.
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Research & Policy
New Paper: American murder mystery revisited: do housing voucher households cause crime?
October 5, 2012: A new journal article by Furman Center Co-Director Ingrid Gould Ellen and NYU Wagner Professor Katherine O’Regan finds that there is no direct causal relationship between the number of Housing Choice Voucher residents in a neighborhood and increased crime. Critics of the voucher system, which provides rent subsidies to allow low-income residents to live in otherwise unaffordable neighborhoods, have alleged that an increased presence of voucher holders leads to increased crime in some neighborhoods. Systematically and empirically studying the question for the first time, the article finds that while neighborhoods with a higher proportion of voucher holding residents tend to see higher crime rates, there is not a causal relationship. The research reveals that other neighborhood characteristics are much more significant in determining crime. Read the full paper here.
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Research & Policy
Furman Center Launches New York City Quarterly Housing Report
July 17, 2012: In an analysis of first quarter 2012 housing indicators, the Furman Center finds that home sales volume rose in the first quarter of 2012, with the number of transactions citywide up almost five percent. Housing prices throughout the city are up 3.5 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The report also finds that the number of foreclosure notices issued in Q1 2012 has fallen citywide since its peak in the third quarter of 2009. However, foreclosure notices in Queens and Staten Island increased by more than 20 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. The Quarterly Housing Update is unique among New York City housing reports because it incorporates sales data, new construction indicators, and foreclosures. It also presents a repeat sales index for each borough to capture price appreciation while controlling for housing quality. View the press release.
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News & Events
Katherine O’Regan Presents on LIHTC Project at Housing Credit Conference
June 26-29, 2012: Furman Center Affiliated Faculty member Katherine O’Regan presented on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Project at the National Council of State Housing Agencies’ 2012 Housing Credit Conference and Marketplace in Denver, Colorado. The study, which examines data from 15 states and represents approximately 30% of LIHTC stock nationally, seeks to shed light on whether or not the LIHTC program reaches tenants with extremely low income (ELI), as well as, the resulting rent burden of such tenants. Katherine O’Regan and Keren Horn’s full working paper, “What Can We Learn about the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program by Looking at the Tenants?,” is available here.
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Research & Policy
Furman Center Releases State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods 2011
May 1, 2012: The Furman Center is pleased the present the 2011 edition of the State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods. In this annual report, the Furman Center compiles statistics on housing, demographics and quality of life in the City, its five boroughs and 59 community districts.This year we examine the distribution of the burden of New York City’s property tax, analyze the changing racial and ethnic makeup of city neighborhoods, evaluate the state of mortgage lending in New York City, and compare federally-subsidized housing programs across the five most populous U.S. cities. Read the Press Release here.