FHFA on Race, Homeownership, and G-Fees; Housing Reform Bills; Rates Steady at Recent Lows

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Melvin L. Watt focused much of his speech to the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) on its five-year goal of creating two million new Black homeowners. The numbers don't lie, Watt said. In 2004 African Americans had a homeownership rate of almost 50 percent. This year the rate is down to 42 percent, a lmost back to 1994 levels . "Because equity in homes has always represented a major part of African American assets, the impact of the economic and foreclosure crisis on African American wealth has been substantial." There are the well-known historical reasons for low homeownership rates among African American households, he said, including disproportionate unemployment and under-employment, low and stagnant wages, non-existent and depleted

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http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2017/8/2/2919