The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced $188 million in grants for two programs benefiting homeless Veterans. The grants were made through the Grant and Per Diem (GPD) program, awarded to community agencies providing services to homeless Veterans.

Mortgage credit availability increased slightly in August according to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) which analyzes data from Ellie Mae's AllRegs® Market Clarity® business information tool.

David H. Stevens, President & CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), released the following statement in response to questions about what steps homeowners should take if their homes suffered damage from Hurricanes Harvey or Irma.

Meridian, a full-service commercial real estate developer based in California, is pleased to announce the purchase of Grunow Memorial Medical Center, a landmark 51,150-square-foot two-story medical office building located at 926 East McDowell Road in Phoenix, Arizona. The seller was PacVentures, a real estate investment firm based in San Diego, California. Meridian paid nearly $5 million for the 40 percent leased building located near Banner Health University Medical Center’s Phoenix Campus and Phoenix Children’s Hospital. The acquisition of Grunow Memorial Medical Center represents Meridian’s first major transaction outside of California

The Boulder Group, a net leased investment brokerage firm, has completed the sale of a single tenant net leased Bakers Square Restaurant located at 7409 Kingery Highway in Willowbrook, Illinois for $1,317,000.

Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas, today issued the following statement regarding the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s decision to halt new FHA multifamily mortgage insurance applications in counties impacted by Hurricane Harvey and designated as Presidentially Declared Disaster areas

Four organizations will serve as keystone partners of Habitat for Humanity’s response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, each making contributions of $1 million or more to support the Habitat Hammers Back initiative. The gifts from the Dow Chemical Company, General Motors, Thrivent Financial and a group of American wind energy companies will support on-the-ground responses to the hurricanes in Texas, Florida and other affected areas.

MISMO®, the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, is inviting mortgage industry participants to collaborate on developing new electronic and online notary standards and best practices for use within the mortgage process

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting public comments on the State of Idaho’s application to assume the role of writing, administering and enforcing water quality discharge permits in the state. Until now, the job of writing wastewater and stormwater discharge permits, performing facility inspections and otherwise enforcing the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (part of the federal Clean Water Act) has been the sole responsibility of federal authorities at EPA.

The release of the First Edition of Profiles in American Solar Manufacturing highlights some of the 600 American solar manufacturing facilities that have achieved success in the solar boom, and that themselves will be severely injured if a trade case brought by two deeply flawed solar cell companies is successful.

The DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) closed three loan agreements totaling more than $18.9 million that will help preserve 360 affordable housing units in Wards 2, 7 and 8. The funding was made available through the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF).

Congress must help communities devastated by Hurricane Harvey become more resilient to extreme weather, flooding, and other climate change risks, according to a new column from the Center for American Progress.

Online home furnishings retailer The Mine continues its commitment to Habitat for Humanity for the fourth year through product donations with a retail value of $1 million to Habitat for Humanity ReStore resale outlets.

The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that Norton will speak on the House floor this evening on two of her amendments that were made in order by the House Rules Committee to the fiscal year 2018 appropriations bills—her amendment to strike the anti-home-rule rider that repeals the District of Columbia’s budget autonomy referendum and her amendment to prohibit the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) from carrying out the law that requires individuals in halfway houses and on home confinement to pay a subsistence fee to offset the cost of being housed or supervised.

Working together, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) continue to coordinate with local, state and federal officials to address the human health and environmental impacts of Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath, especially the water systems in the affected areas.  TCEQ has 500 people assisting in response to this natural disaster and EPA has 185.

The Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources began a comprehensive legislative overhaul of federal onshore energy development with a legislative hearing to review targeted bills that reform the existing federal regulatory framework

Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas, issued the following statement after the Trump administration announced it would wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has allowed young people known as “Dreamers” who were brought to this country illegally as children to live and work

Mortgage applications increased 3.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 1, 2017.

The Appraisal Institute, the nations largest professional association of real estate appraisers, on Wednesday joined with nearly three dozen appraiser organizations in asking Congress to call on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to prevent Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from issuing appraisal waivers.

Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a nationally-recognized real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in retail property sales, announced today that President Ed Hanley and Executive Vice President Kevin Fryman represented the buyer and seller in the sale of Seco Canyon Village, a 42,134-square-foot shopping center anchored by CVS/pharmacy located in the Los Angeles metro area. The purchase price was $15,520,000.

Thanks to the BCER Group and Wish for Wheels, two Colorado organizations, dozens of children living at Parkside Apartments in Denver, Colorado now have bikes! On August 11, 2017, BCER Engineering, a Colorado-based engineering firm, partnered with Wish for Wheels, a nonprofit that gives bikes to kids from low-income families, to build 25 bikes for the children living at Parkside Apartments, a Mercy Housing community in Denver, Colorado.

The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that the House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider amendments to the fiscal year 2018 Transportation, Housing And Urban Development Appropriations bill, including her amendments to prohibit states that receive federal transportation funding from engaging in unconstitutional profiling based on physical characteristics and another to increase funding for Section 8 tenant-based vouchers by 1 percent, or $187 million, today, Tuesday, September 5, 2017, at 4:00 p.m. in H-312 (U.S. Capitol).

The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider amendments to the fiscal year 2018 District of Columbia Appropriations bill, including Norton’s amendments to strike all four anti-home-rule riders from the bill, during a markup tomorrow, Wednesday, September 6, 2017, in H-312 (U.S. Capitol).

MISMO, the mortgage industry's standards organization, is inviting industry participants to collaborate on new closing instruction standards, which will be designed to improve communication and avoid delays during the closing process.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta released the following statement to commemorate Labor Day: “Labor Day is the one day a year that we set aside to honor the men and women who work every day to make this nation great. At the Department of Labor, we have the great privilege of engaging with the greatest workforce in the world, the American workforce

The National Association of Realtors® has honored 10 Realtors® as finalists of REALTOR® Magazine’s 2017 Good Neighbor Awards. This award honors Realtors® who make an extraordinary impact on their community through volunteer work.

The National Flood Insurance Program is now less than one month away from expiration, raising concerns that homeowners, consumers, and commercial property owners could soon find themselves either unprotected or unable to get a mortgage.

Meridian, a full-service commercial real estate developer based in California, is pleased to announce the purchase of Sutter Square, a 174,689-square-foot nine-story office building located at 1800 Sutter Street in Concord, California. The seller was the Cranbrook Group of Modesto, California. Meridian paid $26.2 million for the 78 percent leased building located near downtown Concord.