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Nicolas P. Retsinas Lecturer Department of Urban Planning and Design |
Publications
Borrowing to Live: Consumer and Mortgage Credit Revisited
Americans are awash in debt. Credit undergirds daily life more than ever before—it is one of the defining aspects of life in the United States today. The damage from a depressed housing market is exacerbated by the subprime lender implosion, sending shock waves through the financial sector, international economies, and the presidential campaign. Most low- or moderate-income people borrow, but they are doing it to stay afloat rather than to keep up with the Joneses. How did things go so wrong? How can we maintain and expand access to credit while protecting the consumer and avoiding a reoccurrence of the current crisis? In Borrowing to Live, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University bring together an elite group of experts, an eclectic group drawn from the best of academia, research, and public service. Together with editors Nicolas Retsinas and Eric Belsky, they dissect the current state of consumer and mortgage credit in the United States and help point the way out of the current impasse. Revisiting Rental Housing: Policies, Programs, and Priorities
Rental housing is increasingly recognized as a vital housing option in the United States. Government policies and programs continue to grapple with problematic issues, however, including affordability, distressed urban neighborhoods, concentrated poverty, substandard housing stock, and the unmet needs of the disabled, the elderly, and the homeless. In Revisiting Rental Housing, leading housing researchers build upon decades of experience, research, and evaluation to inform our understanding of the nation's rental housing challenges and what can be done about them. It thoughtfully addresses not only present issues affecting rental housing, but also viable solutions. The first section reviews the contributing factors and primary problems generated by the operation of rental markets. In the second section, contributors dissect how policies and programs have—or have not—dealt with the primary challenges; what improvements—if any—have been gained; and the lessons learned in the process. The final section looks to potential new directions in housing policy, including integrating best practices from past lessons into existing programs, and new innovations for large-scale, long-term market and policy solutions that get to the root of rental housing challenges. Contributors include William C. Apgar (Harvard University), Anthony Downs (Brookings), Rachel Drew (Harvard University), Ingrid Gould Ellen (New York University), George C. Galster (Wayne State University), Bruce Katz (Brookings), Jill Khadduri (Abt Associates), Shekar Narasimhan (Beekman Advisors), Rolf Pendall (Cornell University), John M. Quigley (University of California-Berkeley), James A. Riccio (MDRC), Stuart S. Rosenthal (Syracuse University), Margery Austin Turner (Urban Institute), and Charles Wilkins (Compass Group).
Building Assets, Building Credit: Creating Wealth in Low-Income Communities Today, more low-income Americans have greater access to credit than ever before, thanks in large part to the growth of global capital markets and liberal use of credit scores. But not all have benefited equally from the opened spigots. Some are overpaying for mortgage credit, others are getting in over their heads, and some have become the victims of predatory lenders. In this volume, noted analysts examine how low-income families
can continue to participate in the American dream of homeownership,
building up assets and equity along the way, and what businesses
and government can do to ensure that low-income families succeed
in homeownership.
Opportunity and Progress: Debates about housing programs too often become mired in partisan battles instead of addressing innovative ways to solve housing problems as a country. Historically, successful housing programs are only developed with the support of both political parties. Two former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretaries-one democrat and one republican-a former CEO of a housing trade association-who is a republican-and a director of a housing research center-who is a democrat-set aside their differences to focus on today's housing challenges. In a new book, Henry Cisneros, Jack Kemp, Kent Colton, and Nicolas Retsinas reassert housing as a national priority and ask that the federal government assume its place at the table partnering with states, localities, and both public and private sector organizations to address housing issues throughout the nation.
Low-Income Homeownership Examining
the Unexamined Goal
The United States is essentially a nation of homeowners and people who aspire to be homeowners. Belief in the benefits of homeownership cuts across racial, ethnic, class, and geographic lines. Homeownership builds wealth. Homeownership is a stable investment. Homeownership encourages neighborhood involvement by residents. Homeownership builds up communities. Homeownership creates positive environments for children and families. Unfortunately, the benefits of homeownership, while widely perceived, have not been universally realized. Homeownership rates have lagged considerably for low-income and minority households. Approximately three-fourths of white, non-Hispanic households own their homes, one and one half times the homeownership rate of African American and Hispanic households. Homeownership rates for suburbs also outpace central cities. In central cities, 52 percent of households own their homes, compared to 75 percent in the suburbs. In the past decade, however, a prosperous economy and innovative public and private sector policies combined to make homeownership a reality for millions of Americans. Mortgage lending to minority homeowners increased substantially during the 1990s—rising 98 percent for African American homebuyers and 125 percent for Hispanic homebuyers. Lending to low-income households nearly doubled, increasing 94 percent. These were and are remarkable achievements. They did not happen
by accident. The leadership of the federal government was critical
on several fronts. In the early 1990s, Congress established new
affordable housing goals for the secondary market entities and
created the HOME program. In the mid-1990s, the Clinton administration
expanded the government’s enforcement of the Community Reinvestment
Act and Fair Housing Act and extended fair lending efforts. Homeownership
counseling and education efforts qualified more and more borrowers
for home mortgages. The private sector responded in kind. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose to the challenge of new federal oversight and created new initiatives to expand homeownership. The private sector created new loan products that allow more flexible lending criteria, qualifying more borrowers for home mortgages. Extended outreach on the part of lenders has not only attracted new categories of borrowers, but has also opened up new urban markets. Our national appetite for wider homeownership—and more favorable homeownership policies—is far from over. Consider these recent events. In May 2002 the Millennial Housing Commission submitted its report on national housing policy to Congress. The report recommended strong support for new federal initiatives on homeownership, including the homeownership tax credit proposed by the Bush administration. During the same month, the United States Conference of Mayors issued a National Housing Agenda that called for a 50 percent reduction in the difference between white and non-white homeownership rates by the end of the decade. In June 2002 President Bush set a national goal of 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end of the decade, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez proposed a “Homebuyer Bill of Rights,” designed to reduce the difficulty many borrowers face when applying for a new mortgage or refinancing an existing one. As the federal government prepares to expand our national commitment to homeownership, it is essential to step back and examine what we really know about the benefits of homeownership for low-income families. What impact does homeownership have on these households? How does homeownership affect communities in which low-income homeowners live? How do these benefits differ by neighborhoods? Do low-income families buying homes in lowincome neighborhoods realize the same benefits as other homebuyers? What has been the impact of low-cost lending on low-income families? Have low-income homeowners been placed in precarious financial situations, particularly given the recent downturn in the economy? What are the research gaps? These and other questions are explored in depth in this compendium.
The The conclusions they reach are encouraging and should renew Americans’ resolve to promote homeownership among low-income families. Their findings should also provide helpful guidance for owners, lenders, communities, and the government. Our challenge is to apply this knowledge so that homeownership can become a reality for many more Americans.
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