FEMA: President Biden Approves Major Disaster Declaration for New Jersey
FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance has been made available to the state of New Jersey to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe winter storm and snowstorm from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, 2021. Federal funding is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on…
FHFA: New Refinance Option Announced for Low-Income Families with Enterprise-Backed Mortgages
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced today Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will implement a new refinance option for low-income borrowers with Enterprise-backed single-family mortgages. Eligible borrowers will benefit from a reduced interest rate and lower monthly payment. FHFA estimates that borrowers who take advantage of the new refinance option could save…
CFPB: Consumer Complaint Bulletin Examines County-Level Demographic Data
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a bulletin today analyzing complaints submitted by consumers in counties nationwide. In 2019 and 2020, the CFPB received more complaints on a per-capita basis from consumers living in predominantly minority counties than from consumers in predominantly white, non-Hispanic counties. Consumers in counties with the highest percentage of minority…
CDFI Fund: FY 2021 Small Dollar Loan Program Round Opens for Applications
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) opened the fiscal year (FY) 2021 funding round for the Small Dollar Loan Program (SDL Program) today. SDL Program funding is intended to expand consumer access to financial institutions by providing alternatives to high cost small dollar lending. The SDL Program funding…
HUD: $28 Million Awarded to Help Public Housing Residents Secure Employment and Higher-Paying Jobs
Housing Authorities in a dozen communities will receive funding under Jobs Plus The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced a $28 million investment to 12 public housing agencies (PHA) to help families increase their earned income and improve their economic mobility. See chart below of today’s funding announcement. Awarded through HUD’s…
FHFA: House Price Index Up 0.9 Percent in February 2021; Up 12.2 Percent from Last Year
House prices rose nationwide in February, up 0.9 percent from the previous month, according to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI®). House prices rose 12.2 percent from February 2020 to February 2021. The previously reported 1.0 percent price change for January 2021 remained unchanged. For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly…
CFPB: Mandatory Compliance Date for General Qualified Mortgage Final Rule Delayed
Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) formally delayed the mandatory compliance date of the General Qualified Mortgage (QM) final rule from July 1, 2021 to October 1, 2022. The CFPB is taking this action to help ensure access to responsible, affordable mortgage credit, and preserve flexibility for consumers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and…
FEMA: President Biden Approves Major Disaster Declaration for Alabama
FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance has been made available to the state of Alabama to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, straight-line winds and tornadoes from March 25-26, 2021. The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Bibb, Calhoun, Clay, Hale, Jefferson, Perry, Randolph…
Census Bureau: Quality Indicators on 2020 Census Released
Today the U.S. Census Bureau released information about the quality of the 2020 Census from two methods: (1) analyses that compare the first census results to other ways of measuring the population, and (2) metrics that provide insight into the census operations. The Census Bureau accelerated plans for releasing this information because of increased interest…
HUD and Census Bureau: New Residential Sales Report for March 2021 Released
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential sales statistics for March 2021: New Home Sales Sales of new single-family houses in March 2021 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,021,000. This is 20.7 percent (±23.7 percent)* below the revised February…