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In the 1949 Housing Act, Congress declared \"a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family\" our national housing goal. Today, little more than half a century later, upwards of 100 million people in the United States live in housing that is physically inadequate, unsafe, overcrowded, or unaffordable.The contributors toA Right to Housingconsider the key issues related to America's housing crisis, including income inequality and insecurity, segregation and discrimination, the rights of the elderly, as well as legislative and judicial responses to homelessness. The book offers a detailed examination of how access to adequate housing is directly related to economic security.With essays by leading activists and scholars, this book presents a powerful and compelling analysis of the persistent inability of the U.S. to meet many of its citizens' housing needs, and a comprehensive proposal for progressive change.

Documents the evolution of HOPE VI, exploring what it accomplished replacing severely distressed public housing with mixed-income communities and where it fell short. Reveals how a program conceived to address a specific problem triggered a revolution in public housing and solidified principles that still guide urban policy today.

Conventional wisdom held that housing prices couldn't fall. But the spectacular boom and bust of the housing market during the first decade of the twenty-first century and millions of foreclosed homeowners have made it clear that housing is no different from any other asset in its ability to climb and crash. Housing and the Financial Crisis looks at what happened to prices and construction both during and after the housing boom in different parts of the American housing market, accounting for why certain areas experienced less volatility than others. It then examines the causes of the boom and bust, including the availability of credit, the perceived risk reduction due to the securitization of mortgages, and the increase in lending from foreign sources. Finally, it examines a range of policies that might address some of the sources of recent instability.

The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008 led to one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in history. The bailout has already cost American taxpayers close to

In his exceedingly timely and innovative look at the ramifications of the collapse of the U.S. housing market, Herman M. Schwartz makes the case that worldwide, U.S. growth and power over the last twenty years has depended in large part on domestic housing markets. Mortgage-based securities attracted a cascade of overseas capital into the U.S. economy. High levels of private home ownership, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, have helped pull in a disproportionately large share of world capital flows. As events since mid-2008 have made clear, mortgage lenders became ever more eager to extend housing loans, for the more mortgage packages they securitized, the higher their profits. As a result, they were dangerously inventive in creating new mortgage products, notably adjustable-rate and subprime mortgages, to attract new, mainly first-time, buyers into the housing market. However, mortgage-based instruments work only when confidence in the mortgage system is maintained. Regulatory failures in the American S&L sector, the accounting crisis that led to the extinction of Arthur Andersen, and the subprime crisis that destroyed Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch and damaged many other big financial institutions have jeopardized a significant engine of economic growth. Schwartz concentrates on the impact of U.S. regulatory failure on the international economy. He argues that the \"local\" problem of the housing crisis carries substantial and ongoing risks for U.S. economic health, the continuing primacy of the U.S. dollar in international financial circles, and U.S. hegemony in the world system.

The ups and downs in housing markets over the past two decades are without precedent, and the costs -financial, psychological, and social -have been enormous. Yet Americans overwhelmingly still aspire to homeownership, and many still view access to homeownership as an important ingredient for building wealth among historically disadvantaged groups. Eric Belsky and Jennifer Molinsky have assembled a team of specilaists to reexamine the goals, risks, and rewards of homeownership in the wake of the housing bubble and subprime lending crisis. Contents Introduction: Low-Income Homeownership at a Crossroads Making the Case for Home Ownership as a Policy Goal1. Homeownership, Wealth, and the Production of Racialized Space 2. Is Homeownership Still an Effective Means of Building Wealth for Low-Income and Minority Households? Was It Ever? 3. Reexamining the Social Benefits of Homeownership after the Housing Crisis Supporting the Home Buying Process4. To Buy or Not to Buy? Understanding Tenure Preferences and the Decisionmaking Processes of Lower-Income Households 5. Developing Effective Subsidy Mechanisms for Low-Income Homeownership 6. Filling the Void Between Homeownership and Rental Housing Balancing Affordability, Access, and Risk 7. Standards, Loan Products, and Performance: What Have We Learned? 8. The Evolving Role of State Housing Finance Agencies 9. Mortgage Default Option Mispricing and Procyclicality The Government's Role in the Evolving Mortgage Market10. Rethinking Duties to Serve in Housing Finance 11. What Role Has the Government Played in Creating a Dual Mortgage Market in the Past and How Likely Is One to Emerge in the Future? 12. The Role of Mortgage Finance in Financial (In)Stability Sustaining Homeownership13. Protecting Homeowners, Post-Purchase: Lessons Learned 14. The Home Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: Lessons Learned

While much recent attention has been focused on the subprime lending and foreclosure crisis, little has been said about its radically-disparate impact. Drawing upon history as well as insight into the current crisis, this book shows that this crisis is not an anomaly, especially for people of color; nor is it over. People of color have been excluded from wealth-building opportunities via homeownership continuously throughout United States history, from the outright denial of credit and residential racial discrimination, to federally-sponsored urban renewal programs. The subprime lending and foreclosure crisis is predicted to strip a quarter of a trillion dollars in wealth from black and Latino homeowners. It has reversed home ownership gains for people of color and has decimated neighborhoods across the United States while impacting local, regional, national, and international economies. The consequences are devastating. This collection of essays provides a framework for creating equitable policy and ultimately building more stable communities for all Americans.

A generation ago little attention was focused on low-income homeownership. Today homeownership rates among under-served groups, including low-income households and minorities, have risen to record levels. These groups are no longer at the margin of the housing market; they have benefited from more flexible underwriting standards and greater access to credit. However, there is still a racial/ethnic gap and the homeownership rates of minority and low-income households are still well below the national average. This volume gathers the observations of housing experts on low-income homeownership and its effects on households and communities. The book is divided into five chapters which focus on the following subjects: homeownership trends in the 1990s; overcoming borrower constraints; financial returns to low-income homeowners; low-income loan performance; and the socioeconomic impact of homeownership.

During one of the worst recessions in United States history, the federal government undertook a series of sweeping changes related to the foreclosure crisis. These changes, in particular to the Federal Home Loan Bank System, have many implications. Mission Expansion in the Federal Home Loan Bank System draws attention to this growing program and argues that the program did not contribute to the foreclosure crisis, also offering a close anaysis of its functions and relationship with congress. Mission Expansion offers an intriguing analysis of a growing, relevant institution for those involved in public policy academically or professionally.