National Mortgage News, October 5, 2021, FHLBank San Francisco, Urban Institute Launch Housing Equity Project
Last month, a group of Democratic Senators, led by Mark Warner of Virginia, introduced the Low-Income First-Time Homebuyers Act, proposing a 20-year government-backed mortgage program that could allow new homeowners to build wealth twice as fast as they would with a traditional 30-year loan.
Separately, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D.-Ga., introduced the upper chamber’s companion bill to the Downpayment Toward Equity Act.
Supporters of the down payment assistance bill — the National Fair Housing Alliance, the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the Center for Responsible Lending, UnidosUS, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights — issued a joint statement on Sept. 30 that not only pointed out the current Black homeownership rate is as low as it was in both 1890 and 1968, but for Latinos, it’s 25 points lower than for whites.
