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Bill Emerson, Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and CEO of Quicken Loans, issued the following statement regarding the inclusion of the Jumpstart GSE reform provision within the year-end spending bill, which would prevent the administration from selling off its stake in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) without congressional approval.

“DOE continues its aggressive and focused campaign to save businesses and consumers money on their energy bills with the announcement of new energy efficiency standards for commercial air conditioners and furnaces. The energy and dollar savings from these latest standards are more than double that of any standard that has been issued to date.

A significant piece of tax legislation is now on its way to the President’s desk, and the bill includes the extension of a number of expired tax provisions important to supporting homeowners and real estate investment.

Congress delivered an early gift of energy efficiency tax incentives to help American consumers and businesses invest in products and technologies that will return energy and dollar savings.  The omnibus appropriations and tax extenders bill approved by Congress reinstates and extends until 2016 a tax incentive of up to $500 for families that purchase qualifying energy efficiency products; provides home builders and/or manufacturers up to $2,000 for building energy efficient homes

Next year, 1,000 homeowners across the state will receive up to $3,000 to seismically retrofit and protect their homes from earthquake damage. The Earthquake Brace + Bolt program is expanding to include more than 150 ZIP codes in vulnerable areas in Northern and Southern California

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced the promotion of Tamara King to the position of Vice President of Residential Policy and Member Engagement, effective January 1, 2016.

Mercy Housing California, one of the largest non-profit affordable housing developers in the state, today announced a generous and significant contribution from locally-owned Jerome’s Furniture. Continuing in their tradition of supporting local families across southern California, Jerome’s Furniture has provided close to $130,000 in funding to address resident needs of three affordable housing developments in Los Angeles and Orange Counties impacting 690 residents.

Mercy Loan Fund (MLF), a leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) based in Denver, Colo., announced that it has provided Fair Housing Partners (FHP) a loan of $540,000 to acquire Ogallala Village Apartments in Ogallala, Neb.

Thomas J. Bisacquino, President and CEO of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, issued the following statement on the House of Representative’s passage of Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015

David H. Stevens, CMB, President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) issued the following statement in response to today's release from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) of the 2016 Scorecard for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Common Securitization Solutions (CSS).

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released a white paper outlining the importance of - and recommendations to expand - affordable rental housing. MBA convened a Task Force of leaders in the commercial/multifamily finance industry to study the range of issues that surround affordable rental housing and recommend steps to enhance its availability.

A new report from the Center for American Progress—released this morning at an event featuring U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro—illustrates the frequent mismatch between affordable housing and opportunity. The report, “An Opportunity Agenda for Renters,” calls for policymakers to address this problem with a two-pronged approach that both promotes residential mobility and reduces poverty, while also reinvesting in racially segregated and economically impoverished neighborhoods.

Prices reported in multiple listing services may differ significantly from prices reported on HUD-1 settlement statements and these discrepancies are likely to be larger during a market bust, according to an article published this week in The Appraisal Journal

Mortgage applications decreased 1.1 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 11, 2015.

Late December 15, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled tax extender legislation, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, that would renew and make permanent some of the expired tax provisions, including the 9 percent minimum Housing Credit rate, and extend for either five years or two years other expired tax provisions. The bill—a major victory for NCSHA and other Housing Credit industry stakeholders—is the result of weeks of negotiations among leaders of both parties and both chambers.

In the early hours of the morning on December 16, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 omnibus spending bill, providing $1.1 trillion in funding for government operations, including funding for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Housing Service programs.

In upcoming hearings across North Carolina, advocates for low income communities will share their concerns that the NC Clean Power Plan (CPP) fails to adequately meet the requirements of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and will leave North Carolina without valuable opportunities for improving energy efficiency, lowering electricity costs, protecting the environment, developing solar and wind renewable energy, and creating new jobs

Following is a statement from Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), on the inclusion of a five-year solar investment tax credit (ITC) extension in the omnibus appropriations bill filed this morning by the U.S. House of Representatives

Nationwide housing starts rose 10.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.173 million units in November, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Commerce Department. Single-family production increased 7.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 768,000 units, its highest reading since January 2008. Multifamily production rose 16.4 percent to 405,000 units

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) is pleased with the treatment of low income housing programs in the proposed FY 2016 Omnibus Appropriations bill that Congressional leaders released this morning. While funding levels remain wholly inadequate to meet the housing needs of low income Americans, the bill is a significant improvement over the HUD appropriations bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year under the constraints of sequestration