Economy

The National Housing Conference (NHC), an affordable housing advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., has released 10 suggestions to help repair the mortgage market and reduce the rising number of foreclosures.

The "Ten Key Principles" that require action by Congress and the Obama administration are available on the NHC Web site. They're the result of an NHC-commissioned industry-wide task force that studied the issue.

"Bold, strong actions are needed," NHC President/CEO Conrad Egan (pictured) said in a statement released yesterday.

The September/October issue of Livin' the Vermont Way magazine features a story titled "Hunkering Down: Vermont's banks weather the economic storm."

The 3-page article by Cindy Ellen Hill of Middlebury quotes Tom Candon, Deputy Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care and a Commissioner of VHFA: "The national economy does impact on us here ... but we're apparently better off than most are."

The article points out Vermont has one of the lowest rates of foreclosures and bankruptcies in the U.S.

In this morning's edition the Burlington Free Press made mention of the $1.4 million in federal funds coming to Vermont for Blake Commons in Swanton.

Read the story online.

The $1.4 million in American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funds awarded to Vermont today (Read our previous post about the award) will be used to finance Blake Commons, a 16-unit multifamily housing project in Swanton.

Blake Commons is being developed in partnership with Housing Vermont and Champlain Housing Trust. It'll provide homes to households at 50-60% of the area median income.

The site was previously a commercial meat-packing plant that was demolished, rezoned and permitted for residential housing units. It's an in-fill site adjacent to the town recreational fields and soon-to-be-developed Swanton Rail Trail, and is within walking distance to the elementary school.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today another $1.4 million in federal funds are coming to Vermont for affordable housing.

This latest allocation of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds includes a total of $309 million distributed to seven states:

• $34 million, Arizona
• $16 million, Connecticut
• $95 million, North Carolina
• $3.6 million, North Dakota
• $41 million, Pennsylvania
• $118 million, South Carolina
• $1.4 million, Vermont

The funds are intended to jump start development or renovation of qualified affordable housing for families.

Considering the unprecedented economic downturn focused on the housing market, VHFA wanted to better understand the values of the homes underlying its single-family mortgages. It’s clear Vermont has among the lowest delinquency and foreclosure rates, but how VHFA-financed properties were faring was important to understand.

The Agency hired a third-party expert in home valuation, First American Core Logic, to provide an unbiased estimate of the value of VHFA’s active single-family portfolio. The results were astounding:

Today's Wall Street Journal article "Vermont Mortgage Laws Shut The Door on Bust — and Boom" examines Vermont's low rate of foreclosure and attributes it, in part, to banking regulations and land use practices.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported sales of new homes were up 11 percent in June — the largest jump in more than eight years and well above the rise of 2.3 percent expected by analysts.

Resales of existing homes were up 3.6 percent in June, the third straight monthly increase.

“The evidence is clear that home buyers are taking advantage of Recovery Act tax incentives, declines in home prices and relatively low mortgage rates,” U.S. Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Rebecca Blank said.

“While the economic environment remains difficult, as more Recovery Act dollars hit the streets, we anticipate that it will further bolster the economy in the coming months.”

While last Friday's boost in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour will help working Americans on the lower end of the pay scale, it still doesn't allow those people to afford decent housing.

According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition's annual "Out of Reach" report, a household must earn $17.84 an hour to afford the national average two-bedroom "fair market rent" (FMR) of $928 a month.

According to the Coalition, "In no county in the U.S. can a full-time minimum wage worker afford even a one-bedroom apartment at the FMR."

With a minimum wage of $8.06 an hour, Vermont is one of 14 states with a minimum higher than the national.

Still, the gap for Vermonters between the minimum wage and fair market rent is substantial.

A few Vermont media reported over the weekend on the growing demand for Section 8 housing vouchers.

The most extensive story appeared in the Rutland Herald.

"Local housing authorities are finding themselves caught in a balancing act as they try to accommodate the demand for the program — as the economy has faltered, more and more applications are being received," writes Stephanie Peters.

"The portion of the rent costs the housing authority pays for its voucher holders has also increased as voucher holders join the unemployment rolls"

Read the Herald story online.