On Our Radar

Across the nation, the wealthier and whiter your neighborhood is, the greener the view from your window is likely to be.

The shortage of affordable homes for sale is boosting housing prices and forcing potential buyers to compete for a shrinking supply of properties. Without policy changes, this housing shortage will restrain homeownership, further drive up prices, and limit opportunities for equitable economic growth. 

The mayors of Akron, Dayton and Lancaster as well as others from the Ohio Mayors Alliance are pushing congress to pass a federal infrastructure plan revealed last week.

Redlining, or housing discrimination by denying services to minority neighborhoods, has been illegal for over half a century. But it just keeps happening.

Even with more Americans tackling systemic racism, including the Biden administration making racial equity a priority, the homeownership gap between Black and white Americans continues to grow, widening the racial wealth gap and other economic disparities. At all income levels, white households have a higher overall homeownership rate than Black households, and similar disparities exist when accounting for education. Black households that have a bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree are less likely to own their own home than a white household that lacks a high school diploma. Structural barriers may limit the benefits of education for Black graduates, who bear higher debt burdens, which may also affect homeownership. Even though overtly racist lending practices have been made illegal, their legacies persist in housing, contributing to a growing modern-day disparity.

The lawmakers are calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide information about data the agencies collect on the prevalence of guardianship in the U.S, any efforts the agencies have made to protect people under guardianship and ways Congress can improve federal collection of guardianship data.

The draft legislation would authorize $3 billion to create an Office of Reparations Program at the Treasury Department, which would provide grants for homeownership, startup capital and funded savings for Black communities.

Firm Ordered to Pay Approximately $70 Million for Systemic Supervisory Failures and Significant Harm Suffered by Millions of Customers.

The Fed is scarfing up a large share of all newly issued mortgage-backed securities.

The idea is that permanent, stable housing is a key to good health.

Cities across the country are struggling with skyrocketing home prices. As I have previously written, the problem is rooted in the collapse of home construction after the Great Recession — for over a decade, there were not nearly enough homes built to accommodate the growing population, and now many cities are suffering a dire housing shortage. What’s worse, city governments are exacerbating the problem by catering policy to existing wealthy property owners.

FINRA announced today that it has fined Robinhood Financial LLC $57 million and ordered the firm to pay approximately $12.6 million in restitution, plus interest, to thousands of harmed customers. The sanctions represent the largest financial penalty ever ordered by FINRA and reflect the scope and seriousness of the violations. In determining the appropriate sanctions, FINRA considered the widespread and significant harm suffered by customers, including millions of customers who received false or misleading information from the firm, millions of customers affected by the firm’s systems outages in March 2020, and thousands of customers the firm approved to trade options even when it was not appropriate for the customers to do so.

The pandemic changed life for everyone, and for some people, that included shacking up with a few familiar faces. Living with multiple generations under one roof is becoming increasingly popular, and it’s influencing what buyers look for in a house. So why is multigenerational living on the rise?

The Biden administration has said it does not plan to extend the moratorium any further.

It was unclear whether the Biden administration would remove Laura Wertheimer following other leadership changes at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.