Government

While mortgage rates fell for a third consecutive week, limited supply and continued affordability issues are handcuffing prospective buyers, as overall mortgage activity rose just 0.5% over last week’s total.

“U.S. housing starts in May came in above consensus expectations at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.63 million, which is 21.7% above the revised April estimate of 1.34 million and 5.7% above the May 2022 rate of 1.54 million,” said First American Economist Ksenia Potapov.

Amid larger macroeconomic uncertainties, the total homeownership rate can be attributed to the strong growth in the below-median income homeownership rate, which has sharply increased since 2016.

“The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5.00% to 5.25%,” the Fed said in a prepared statement.

Rather than viewing the reverse mortgage lending business as a completely new line of business, lenders today are looking at reverse mortgages as another loan product to add to their menu of offerings.

The Senate Banking Committee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development is set to host a hearing assessing the government’s efforts to improve housing efforts among Native American communities nationwide.

“While elevated rates and other affordability challenges remain, inventory continues to be the biggest obstacle for prospective homebuyers,” said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater.

A series of actions set forth by the Biden Administration aims to strike out appraisal bias and level the playing field in building generational wealth via homeownership.

A panel of experts will discuss the reach of Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, a measure that requires financial institutions to collect and report data on small business loans, in the next chapter of the Five Star Institute Webinar Series.

Data culled from the 2020 Census Demographic Profile and Demographic and Housing Characteristics File has found that West Virginia and Maine reported the highest homeownership rates in 2020, while the District of Columbia reported the lowest homeownership rate nationwide.