By KIMBERLEY HAAS
A bicameral bill that would force hedge funds out of the single-family home market has been introduced.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) introduced the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023 this week, with Merkley stating, “The housing in our neighborhoods should be homes for people, not profit centers for Wall Street.”
“Yet, in every corner of the country, giant financial corporations are buying up housing and driving up both rents and home prices,” Merkley said in a statement. “It’s time for Congress to put in place commonsense guardrails that ensure all families have a fair chance to buy or rent a decent home in their community at…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
The new vice president of public policy at Rocket Central says his goal is to increase opportunities for people who have historically had difficulties achieving home ownership because of a host of barriers.
Karan Kaul, a housing finance veteran who worked as a principal research associate in the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute prior to joining Rocket, said that means focusing on first-time homebuyers, people of color, and low- to moderate-income borrowers.
In a recent interview with The Mortgage Note, Kaul said a well-documented hurdle to homeownership is a lack of an adequate down payment, especially with the increase in home prices over the last decade.
“So what can we do to make sure…
Dr. Maggie Deichert has advanced from director of Policy Development & Research (PD&R) to vice president of PD&R at DHA, Housing Solutions for North Texas. In her new role, Dr. Deichert will lead DHA research initiatives and implementation involving affordable housing and self-sufficiency to help underserved communities achieve upward mobility. During her time as director, starting in 2019, she helped develop programs aimed at increasing housing access in North Texas, including the Children First North Texas program, designed to combat segregation and provide support services for voucher families living in areas of poverty. She was also in charge of disbursing $24 million in Covid-19 rental assistance, for which she and her team used an automation-driven system based on an equity-focused…
