Members of Vermont Interfaith Action (VIA) met last night to consider options to encourage the University of Vermont (UVM) to create more affordable housing for its staff and faculty.

The Burlington Free Press reports about 80 people attended the meeting at the College Street Congregational Church to hear a report about the area's affordability challenges and UVM's past promises to help create more housing.

Several UVM employees who've struggled to find affordable places to live within easy commuting distance of the university's campus spoke at the meeting.

UVM administrators did not attend, but sent a letter to be read at the gathering. Administrators say student housing is UVM's current focus.

Existing home sales remain depressed and new home sales are at near record lows, according to The State of the Nation’s Housing. The report was released today by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Elevated vacancies and foreclosures continue to place downward pressure on prices, the report states. Where foreclosures are concentrated, property markets are in turmoil. Just 10 percent of neighborhoods across the U.S. account for nearly half of all foreclosures in 2010.

The Burlington Free Press reported on Vermont's real estate scenario yesterday. The front page story featured VHFA Policy & Planning Manager Maura Collins.

"Vermont's reliance on community banks, which remained careful in their lending practices when bigger banks and mortgage companies were playing fast and loose with underwriting guidelines, helped Vermont avoid the foreclosure mess," the article states.

Read the story online.

This is the first of many profiles we'll be publishing over the coming weeks shining the spotlight on VHFA's participating lenders. People’s United Bank is a subsidiary of People's United Financial Inc., a diversified financial services company with $25 billion in assets. Founded in 1842, the bank's the largest independent bank in New England and provides consumer, commercial and wealth management services through nearly 340 branches in Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts.