As the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) considers how best to manage mortgage risk CRL responded to its offer for comments. Discouraging fees that would create unnecessary barriers to homeownership, CRL called for a reduction in Guarantee Fees, also known as 'g-fees', and reminds FHFA of its duty to serve the entire market.
Home ownership has been the primary means for most American families to build and pass on inter-generational wealth. However, government-sanctioned racial discrimination in housing and mortgage finance markets robbed many families of this opportunity, and today’s racial homeownership gap is barely changed from the levels of more than 50 years ago. Closing the homeownership gap is essential to closing the racial wealth gap. Additionally, predatory mortgage lending practices drained trillions in wealth from families, especially Black, Latino, low wealth and low-income Americans. CRL successfully advocated for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which has made the mortgage market far safer for consumers. CRL is building on this progress by working to ensure that all credit-worthy borrowers have access to fair, affordable, and sustainable mortgages. And that policy makers and market participants develop solutions that are appropriate to respond to the scale of this housing crisis.
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Consumers with lower credit scores often also have low down payments when purchasing a home. As a result, fees for mortgage insurance are added to payments. In these comments, CRL argues for these consumers, citing how higher fees would be another barrier to successful homeownership. Additionally, with the enactment of new mortgage rules, notably QM (Qualified Mortgages), determining an ability-...
In these comments, CRL expresses general support for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposals to amend the 2013 Mortgage Rules under the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z). Additionally, CRL calls for more clarity to help prevent potential abuses to legitimate nonprofit organizations and to the right to cure provisions addressing errors.
A 13-member coalition of civil rights, housing and legal advocates called upon the U.S. Senate Banking Committee to preserve equal access to mortgage credit for all qualified borrowers. Together the groups stated that a robust housing market must be fair with equal credit terms and effective regulation. They also noted that the nation's demographic shifts will translate into seven out...
CRL President Mike Calhoun testified before the House Financial Services Committee that CFPB's rules strike the right balance of providing borrower protections while also ensuring access to credit.
In 2014, new mortgage lending reforms go into effect. Finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the reforms respond to the abusive lending practices that triggered the nation's financial crisis. The new rules also protect and preserve access to credit. Lenders must now consider whether a borrower has the ability to repay a mortgage. This change means an end to...
A host of civil rights and fair housing allies joined with CRL in submitting comments to federal financial regulators and HUD. The comments which addressed proposed rules on credit risk retention requirements focus on three key recommendations: •Support for the proposed alignment of mortgage rules to restrict risky loan features; •Protection of access to credit for qualified homebuyers; and •Opposition...
In this testimony and working paper presented before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Eric Stein, CRL Senior Vice-President, reminded lawmakers that consumer concerns must not be lost in proposed housing finance reforms. Key recommendations include: Preserving broad consumer access to credit Requiring secondary market entities to serve a national market Converting stock ownership of secondary market...
A Framework for Housing Finance Reform, CRL's new working paper looks to how what's worked well at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before conservatorship, can be preserved. Conversely, it also identifies core causes of what went wrong with the two GSEs. The paper's ultimate goal is to bring forth ideas that will provide long-term stability in the marketplace.