Freddie Mac has confirmed that homeowners and mortgage servicers impacted by Hurricane Ida are eligible for disaster relief options. Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana Monday, leaving about one million homes and businesses without power. Federal officials said it could be weeks before power is fully restored. The storm slammed the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, and continued moving through Mississippi as a tropical storm. Ida has caused severe flooding, ripped roofs off buildings, and destroyed power lines. For homeowners, the impact could be catastrophic. A statement from the National Weather Service in New Orleans warned that parts of southeast Louisiana “uninhabitable for weeks or months.” On Tuesday night, Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-La.) urged those forced to…
A wave of evictions could mean more options for homebuyers, but fewer rental properties on the market. Today, the Supreme Court lifted the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium, declaring that it is almost certain the Centers for Disease Control exceeded their authority by imposing it. The ruling exposes millions of Americans who are late on their rent to the possibility of eviction, and could impact an estimated 3.6 million households. It is unclear exactly how many evictions will take place. Many local governments have their own eviction moratoriums in place. Some landlords may decide instead to work out repayment plans with their tenants rather than risk their property sitting empty. But if evictions do happen, the booming housing market could be…
In a speech at the annual Jackson Hole symposium, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank is likely to begin withdrawing some of its pandemic policies before the end of the year. Still, interest-rate increases won’t be coming overnight.
That means the Fed will likely begin cutting the amount of bonds it buys each month before the end of the year. But Powell stressed that these cuts should not be seen as indicators that rate increases are around the corner.
“The timing and pace of the coming reduction in asset purchases will not be intended to carry a direct signal regarding the timing of interest rate liftoff, for which we have articulated a different and substantially more stringent…
In an unsigned opinion released Thursday, the Supreme Court lifted the Biden administration’s latest moratorium on evictions, declaring that it is almost certain the Centers for Disease Control exceeded their authority by imposting it. The conservative majority sided with the Alabama Association of Realtors who argued that imposing such a moratorium requires congressional action, which is the position Justice Brett Kavanaugh took in his June, 2021 ruling on the issue. At least 11 million renters are considered seriously delinquent on payments, and an estimated 3.6 million households could face evictions in the coming months. “It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken,” the Court’s 8-page opinion states. “But that has not…
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Los Angeles’ COVID-19 eviction moratorium, rejecting an effort by Southern California’s largest landlord organization to reverse the restriction. The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles sued the city on June 11, 2020, challenging the eviction ban, prohibitions on late fees and interest on unpaid rent, and moratorium on annual rent increases. AAGA consists of 55,000 rental property owners and managers. Judge Daniel Aaron Bress wrote for the three-judge panel that upheld the moratorium, writing “the moratorium’s provisions were likely ‘reasonable’ and ‘appropriate’ given the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic” and adding that there was “no apparent basis” on which the moratorium violates the U.S. Constitution’s Contracts Clause, as the landlord association alleged. The clause…
As first-time and lower-income buyers are being squeezed out of bidding wars against cash-rich investors, the homestead exemption could help combat take over by Wall Street, columnist and investment professional Conor Sen argued in Bloomberg. FHFA is attempting to address this issue by awarding a higher percentage of federal-backed mortgages to low-income households or for homes in minority communities. But Sen suggested that goal, while admirable, might not actually lead to major change and suggested that relying on the homestead exemption might prove more fruitful. The homestead exemption is a legal exemption that can shield owners from property taxes, but only for people actually living in the home. Sen argues that local governments can help homebuyers by increasing the amount…
Federal efforts to help renters cover their monthly payments have largely failed, as theTreasury Department reports just $1.7 billion of the $46.5 billion rental aid program’s funds have been disbursed, leaving 89 percent untouched. “About a million payments have now gone out to families — it is starting to help a meaningful number of families,” Gene Sperling, who oversees the operation of federal pandemic relief programs for President Biden, told the New York Times. “It’s just not close to enough in an emergency like this to protect all the families who need and deserve to be protected. So there is still way more to do and to do fast. The Emergency Rental Assistance Program was created to provide funds to…
The Biden administration this week argued before the Supreme Court that the worsening pandemic in the United States justifies the administration’s executive extension of the federal eviction moratorium. The Supreme Court earlier this summer had indicated that the moratorium, once it expired at the end of July, would have to be extended by Congress rather than the executive branch. The Biden administration nevertheless unilaterally proceeded with a new moratorium. With the matter now before the high court, the Biden administration says that the “trajectory of the pandemic” requires a new moratorium, one the administration says it was justified in passing. Just in: The Biden administration has filed its response in the latest case at SCOTUS challenging the federal eviction moratorium.…
Efforts to increase the amount of housing in California are hitting a roadblock in Los Angeles, where city councilmembers have mounted an opposition to loosen the state’s regulations on multifamily units. Two bills recently introduced in the California Senate would allow several new avenues by which homebuilders might develop multi-family units on land originally zoned for single-family dwellings. California is among the states struggling the most with restricted housing stock amid the broader housing crunch. Yet the Los Angeles City Council this week announced a resolution opposing the measures, claiming the state-level bills would wrest local control of housing away from local authorities. The bills “are the third annual attempt by San Francisco Sen. Scott Weiner to destroy local control…
A new piece of legislation proposed by one of the top Democrats in the Senate would seek to extend a tax credit for first-time homebuyers as well as promote the construction of affordable housing across the country. The Decent, Affordable, Safe Housing for All Act would seek to address major gaps in the U.S. housing industry in part by “greatly increasing the production of deeply affordable housing for families exiting homelessness and for low-income households by investing in effective, efficient existing programs and reforming the tax code,” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s office said in a press release. The bill would move to “strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit” as well as “establish a Renter’s Tax Credit and Middle-Income Housing Tax…
