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The Fed’s monetary policy is stifling new construction

Since mortgage rates have headed higher again, I was anticipating that today’s housing starts report would be the last decent print before the effects of higher mortgage rates hit the builders, but even this report was disappointing. We had a good few months of positive builder confidence data for the new home sector and positive…

Lawmakers, MBA call out FICO for potential price hikes

A coalition of 34 Democratic senators and representatives submitted a letter this week to President Joe Biden, urging him to direct the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the pricing practices of Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO)’s credit reports. The letter also encourages the president to direct the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to more…

FHLBanks respond to FHFA report on affordable housing investments

The Council of Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) lauded this week’s release of a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which highlighted the banks’ growth in support of affordable housing and community development efforts in 2023. The report detailed FHLBanks’ activity across several programs that include the Affordable Housing Program (AHP), the Community…

Home construction data offers glimmers of optimism — but with a caveat

The number of housing units that came online in September showed a big year-over-year jump, but data on earlier stages of construction suggest not much is coming through the pipeline. That’s according to monthly data on new residential construction from the U.S. Census Bureau, which shows year-over-year declines in building permits (-5.7%) and housing starts…