The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, has released its annual The State of the Nation’s Housing report on June 14, 2010. This report provides a periodic assessment of the nation’s housing outlook and summarizes important trends in the economics and demographics of housing. The report continues to earn national recognition as a source of information regularly utilized by housing researchers, industry analyst, policy makers, and the business community.
In order for policy to be most effective – especially as it relates to housing, it is important to know the historical and current state of affairs, in order to successfully make plausible strides toward the future. According to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2009 report, the Summary of Housing Challenges revealed the following findings:
• Affordability Concerns – the share of cost-burdened households shot up by almost six percentage points between 2001 and 2007;
• Housing Conditions – about one in ten households in the bottom income quartile lived in inadequate housing in 2007;
• Employment Pressures – at the end of April 2009, unemployment had hit 8.9 percent or 5.7 million workers;
• Fragile Family Finances – aggregate household debt doubled;
• Race Matters - in April 2009, the unemployment rate was 15.0 percent for blacks, 11.3 percent for Hispanics, and 8.0 percent for whites;
• Crisis Responses – A study by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) revealed that state governments anticipated a revenue shortfall of $99 billion.
So what does The State of the Nation’s Housing 2010, Summary of Housing Challenges reveal compared to last year? The findings are listed as follows:
• Widespread Cost Burdens – the share of severely burdened households jumped to 16 percent in 2008;
• Income-Housing Cost Mismatch – in 2008, 24 percent of renters spent half or more of their income on housing;
• Unemployment & Housing Insecurity – in April 2010, 6.7 million workers had been out of work for more than six months;
• Household Deleveraging – between 2006 and 2009, bankruptcies climbed from 600,000 to 1.4 million.
Based on The State of the Nation’s Housing report, there were many housing challenges in 2009, while many of those same challenges were similarly indicated in the 2010 report. Despite, the previous and current years reported housing challenges, it is of essence to note the strides that are being made in getting America to brighter days.
So, exactly where are we heading? According to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2010report, the Housing Challenges summary has revealed the following:
• Federal Responses – 1.) States paid out $79.6 billion in unemployment benefits over the course of 2009, up from $32.4 billion in 2007; 2.) The federal government launched the Home Affordable Modification Program in 2009 to reduce housing payments for eligible households; 3.) While the $5.9 billion appropriated for The Neighborhood Stabilization Programs remains small – the program has been intended to target the neediest neighborhoods, even if only in a few areas; 4.) To help with local foreclosure prevention efforts, the federal government has also awarded $2.1 billion to Housing Finance Agencies in the five states with the steepest house price declines and an additional five states with high concentration of unemployment; 5.) The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative has launched, it is designed to make transformative investments in neighborhoods where public and assisted is concentrated; 6.) The government is also leveraging housing by providing some limited but path-breaking support for regional planning in coordination with the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
In addition to the federal programs listed above in The State of The Nation’s Housing 2010 report, North Carolina, recently passed Senate Bill (SB) 1015, which will be instrumental for North Carolinian Homeowners and Homebuyers:
• Local Policy - on July 7th, SB1015 (the Homeowner and Homebuyer Protection Act) passed the NC Senate and is on its way to Governor Perdue for her signature. This Bill will help NC homeowners facing unprecedented job loss and risk of foreclosure by prohibiting foreclosure rescue scams.
It goes without saying that it will likely take years for the repercussions from the Great Recession to abate. In the face of the challenges, the Obama Administration has focused on streamlining federal housing programs and continues to move toward programs that secure the fair market rent system. While the federal budget deficit continues to loom, it may take some time to notice a dent in the widespread housing affordability issues. However, it is worth noting where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going in our journey for continued housing affordability success.
To read the full report, go to…
http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/markets/son2010/index.htm
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