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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

Beginning Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, the new adjusted educational impact fees will be $5,856 for a mobile home, $8,045 for a multi-family dwelling, and $9,324 for a single-family home. Educational impact fees are imposed by local governments and paid by developers to address the increase in school facility infrastructure demands created by new development

The level of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased by $38 billion in the third quarter of 2015, as three of the four major investor groups increased their holdings.  That is a 1.4 percent increase over the second quarter of 2015.

“Consumers Energy is proud to have been an integral part of the Bad Axe community for more than 52 years. This new environmentally friendly building reaffirms our commitment to providing safe, reliable natural gas service to homes and businesses in Huron County for years to come,” said Charles Crews, Consumers Energy vice president of gas operations.

An independent national survey has ranked Consumers Energy fifth in the nation among providers of electricity and natural gas and a “Customer Champion” for strengthening its bond with residential customers

Builder confidence in the market for newly constructed single-family homes remained relatively flat in December, dropping one point to 61 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).

Tom Woods, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo., issued the following statement on the ruling by the Government Accountability Office that found the Obama administration broke the law when it used social media to urge the general public to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule defining “waters of the United States.”

As the nation’s metro areas continues to expand, homeowners are seeking community amenities that allow them to remain connected to people and commerce. Walkability, higher density and infill development, as well as access to public transportation are all on the rise according to the findings from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Home Design Trends Survey for the third quarter of 2015, which focuses on community and neighborhood design.

Performance of first-lien mortgages continued to improve during the third quarter of 2015, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) quarterly report on mortgages

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro today announced HUD’s latest national one-night estimate of homelessness, highlighting a continuing decline across the nation. The results are based on HUD’s ‘point-in-time’ estimates, which seek to measure the scope of homelessness on a single night in January each year.

Consumers Energy announced the emergency public warning siren systems near its Rogers, Hardy and Croton hydroelectric generating plants on the Muskegon River will be tested on Thursday, Dec. 17, at approximately 10 a.m.

The severe and worsening inequality in the United States means that access to opportunity is often dependent on where a person lives. Yet due to a lack of available affordable housing and deeply rooted patterns of residential segregation, where people live depends in large part on income, race, and ethnicity. Policies that promote residential mobility while also reinvesting in racially segregated and high-poverty neighborhoods are crucial for reducing inequality and promoting healthy communities.