Oregon Housing Blog

Private Mortgage Insurance Companies Get Lump of Coal for Christmas With Credit Rating Downgrade.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Housing Wire has story HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Publishes New Consumer RESPA Booklet.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:13:00 +0000

PDF of booklet (Shopping for Your Home Loan) is HERE.

HUD RESPA page is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Homeless Grants Announced, Oregon Gets $17.2 Million.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:18:00 +0000

HUD press release is HERE.

Excel file with Oregon grants is HERE.

$17.2 Million for Oregon appears on the surface to be a significant reduction from $20.1 million for Oregon for FY 2008, however the number of multi-year grants can vary by year, so it is impossible to make an "apples to apples" comparison.

It also appears that this announcement may ONLY be for renewal grants and that NEW grants will not be announced until 2010. Note also that Oregon received significant Recovery Act funding for homeless programs, so TOTAL HUD dollars for homeless programs this year is WAY up (2X+) compared to last.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Correction: Improper Government Payment/Error Rate Transparency Heating Up; HUD Should Welcome.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Correction: I corrected text below to read that NET over payment errors were 1.6%, after underpayments were subtracted from over payments.
----------

In late November the President issued a new Executive Order that will require Internet publication of improper payment data by federal agencies by May 2009. The Executive Order is HERE.

A Government Executive news story HERE includes a PDF table HERE showing error rates for select agencies and programs.

You will see that HUD's 3.5% error rate (total gross errors/total dollars spent) compares very favorably to error rates for other federal programs. (Gross Error rates include both over and underpayment, if underpayments were subtracted from overpayments, HUD rental assistance NET overpayments would be only 1.6%--$453 Million out of $29 Billion in payments).

In contrast to the low error rates for HUD and many other programs check out HIGH program error rates for:

Program	Error Rate	Total Errors
Medicaid	9.6%	$18,075
Unemployment	10.3%	$12,283
Earned Income Tax Credit	25.5%	$12,250
Medicare Advantage	15.4%	$12,010
SSI.	12.1%	$5,437
School Lunches	16.4%	$1,551
HUD Rental Assistance	3.5%	$1,022
VA pensions	11.2%	$425
Homeland Security Grants	18.8%	$261
Disaster Assistance Loans	20.9%	$169

(Why improper payments for Defense contracting do not appear at all on the list is a mystery to me).

Detailed HUD data on improper payments is found within the FY 2009 PAR that I recently posted about; discussion about HUD improper payments start on page 343. Note that HUD income reporting errors are on the rise and will likely receive increased attention in the future.

All in all I think this is a VERY good tool that should improve transparency and allow easier comparison between error rates in different programs.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD's FY 2009 Performance and Accountability Report; One Table Shows Loss of 44K HUD Assisted Units from FY 06-09.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:02:00 +0000

The FY 2009 HUD Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) was recently posted HERE on the HUD website. It's long but highly recommeneded.

As an example of the important details found in the report, HERE is a table I constructed from data in the report; table shows the loss of 44,000 HUD assisted units from FY 2006-FY 2009.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Two HUD Programs Make Top 10 List of Federal Assistance Programs.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:54:00 +0000

New GAO report HERE discusses the factors used to allocate funding for the top 10 largest federal assistance programs. For 2008 those programs and obligation amounts included two HUD programs

Housing Choice Vouchers and
The combined Community Development Block Grants (CDBG)/and Neighborhood Stabilization Programs (NSP).

Program	Amount obligated
Medicaid	$214.0
Highway Planning and Construction	37.4
TANF	17.0
Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers	15.6
Title I Grants to Local Education Agencies	13.9
IDEA Part B	11.0
Federal Transit Formula Grants Programs	8.2
Head Start	6.9
CHIP	6.0
CDBG and Neighborhood Stabilization Program	4.9
Total	$334.9

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Brookings MetroMonitor Shows Portland Economy Under Performing Relative to 100 Metro Area Average.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Brookings MetroMonitor compares metropolitan performance for 100 largest metro areas on a quarterly basis in areas like employment/unemployment, changes in domestic product, housing prices, and REO.

Portland metro profile is HERE and table pasted below, you will see that Portland is under performing the average for metro areas in ALL metrics, except for the metric "REOs per 1,000 mortgageable properties".

Employment	Portland	Rank*	100-metro average	U.S. average
Change in employment from peak (2008Q1)	-5.9 %	70	-4.3 %	-4.6 %
One-quarter change in employment	-0.9 %	81	-0.5 %	-0.5 %
Unemployment
Unemployment rate	10.7 %	73	9.6 %	9.5 %
One-year percentage point change in unemployment rate	5.0 points	90	3.6 points	3.5 points
Gross metropolitan product (GMP)
Change in GMP from peak (2008Q2)	-5.5 %	84	-2.4%	-2.5%
One-quarter change in GMP	-0.1 %	93	0.8%	0.8 %
Housing prices
One-year change in housing prices	-6.0 %	79	-3.0 %	-1.3 %
Real estate owned properties (REOs)
REOs per 1,000 mortgageable properties	2.89	58	4.32	3.51
One-quarter change in REOs per 1,000 mortgageable properties	0.57	91	0.17	0.20

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Off Topic: Private Contractor Workforce in Afghanistan.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:36:00 +0000

Interesting TPM story HERE.

Congressional Research Service report is HERE. Report projects 120-160,000 contract employees in Afghanistan, mostly locals.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blo g.

OHCS Begins Trial Tweets.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:09:00 +0000

A little bird told me....

Sign up for their trial tweet HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blo g.

Jobs Bill Severed from Defense Appropriations Action this Week, Moves to Slow Track.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:47:00 +0000

So says The Hill story HERE; means that Housing Trust and Public Housing Capital Grant funding will be on a much slower track, and may indeed not pass at all in the Senate,

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

House Jobs Bill Amendment Includes $2 Billion For Public Housing Capital Grants and New Housing Trust Fund.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:33:00 +0000

The House Rules Committee has posted amendments to the House Defense Appropriations bill to be considered by the House this week. They include $1 Billion in additional HUD Capital Grant program funding and $1 Billion+ for the new Housing Trust Fund.

Not clear as to what will finally pass the House or Senate or when, but HUD provisions are in the amendment HERE titled House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2847 - Jobs for Main Street Act, 2010.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

My Newly Constructed Excel HUD Multifamily REAC Database Allows Retrieval of All Inspection Scores by Year.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:27:00 +0000

I have constructed a new Excel database HERE showing ALL HUD Multifamily REAC inspection scores as of today, with a breakout for Oregon. I took HUD data and added a (calendar) YEAR field to make viewing inspections by year easier to see.

The default view in the pivot table I constructed shows an alpha list of Oregon properties and a count of inspections by year; double clicking on the count for a specific property IN a specific year will extract the data for that year in a separate worksheet showing you the REAC score(s) for that year. (Data for Oregon shows 107 REAC inspections this year). You can use other filters to extract data for other states, as well as by metro area and county name.

Because of the large number or records the file I created is in Excel 2007 format.Some users report when they save Excel 2007 files they end up with a compressed .zip file extension. My suggestion is to RIGHT CLICK and save the file to your PC. Then navigate to the file you downloaded and look at its file extension. IF it appears as .ZIP extension, change the .ZIP extension to Excel 2007 extension (.xlsx), and THEN open the file with Excel 2007.

After downloading and opening look at the READ ME tab to see additional notes, and link to the HUD web page where I downloaded the data.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Updated: HUD SAFE Act Responsibilities Proposed Rule to be Published in FR Tomorrow.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Update: Federal Register link to proposed regulation, from Tuesday Dec 15th., is HERE.
----------

Look in tomorrow's /Tuesday Federal Register, an advance copy is available HER E (Link will not work after Monday).

In addition to establishing HUD’s responsibilities under the SAFE Act, through this rule, HUD proposes to clarify or interpret certain statutory provisions that pertain to the scope of the SAFE Act licensing requirements, and other requirements that pertain to the implementation, oversight, and enforcement responsibilities of the states.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Updated: HUD's Fall 2009 Semi Annual Regulatory Agenda Includes 60 Regulatory Actions.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:13:00 +0000

Update: Link HERE is to HUD narrative about their regulatory priorities.

Semi Annual Regulatory Agenda was published about a week ago; as usual HUD provided little notice of publication. Semi Annual agenda provides recap of status of regulations, including completed and planned actions. Primary value for me has been to provide a roadmap of future actions, and sometimes a revelation that a rule has been published that I overlooked.

Links to details for each of the 60 regulatory actions are live in the PDF file I constructed HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Updated-HUD, DOT, Etc. FY 2010 Appropriations Bill On Way to President for Signature.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:56:00 +0000

Update:
Link to clean copy of PDF of Conference Report is HERE.
The actual clean copy text of the complete omnibus bill is HERE.

---------------

Senate vote was Sunday afternoon.

Links from my prior post:

Document HERE should open to the HUD Section of the bill conference committee explanation.(Summary table of HUD amounts runs from PDF pages 283-296).

Actual legislative language is HERE, HUD Section starts at page 114, ends at page 212.

(Both conference report and bill links above include handwritten comments, mark outs etc. Eventually cleaner versions of both will appear at Thomas website for bill (H.R. 3288); link is HERE).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

More Details on Amendment to Add Housing Trust Fund to Defense Appropriations, Including Project Based Vouchers.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:44:00 +0000

Culled this from (Connecticut) Partnership for Strong Communities website HERE.

Amendment is HERE; would provide $1 Billion AND $65,000,000 for project based vouchers OR project based assistance.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Audio of Dec. 10th Portland Metro Council Consideration of Urban Growth Report, With Testimony.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:08:00 +0000

I have created an edit of the Metro audio file from the Dec. 10th Council hearing. The discussion of the Urban Growth resolution begins at about 45 seconds into the MP3 audio file HERE. (File is 62 MB's).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

NLIHC's Budget Chart for $46 Billion in FY 2010 HUD Appropriations Bill.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Bill still requires Senate action (which may occur this weekend), but NLIHC budget table is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Updated: New Loan Mod Report Shows 681 Loan Mods in Oregon During November

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Updated: Dawned on me that loan mods are processed during work days. In November there were a total of 19 workdays (M-F, and excluding two Federal holidays). That works out to 35-36 loan mods per workday for November.
---------

I have created a report which now has a table showing monthly changes as well as monthly tables with state totals and state share of all loan mods.

Three page PDF file is HERE, shows Oregon has a total of 8,241 mods through November, with 681 added during the month or about 22-23 a day.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

NLIHC Alert Says Housing Trust Fund to Be Part of Defense Appropriations, Includes Project Based Vouchers.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:02:00 +0000

Copy of alert I received today

Funding for the National Housing Trust Fund could be imminent. Senate and House offices needed to hear from you about the importance of ensuring capitalization of the NHTF at $1 billion and providing project-based voucher funding for most of the NHTF units.

Call your Senators and Representative now. Ask them to support including this important NHTF funding in the FY10 Department of Defense appropriations bill.

You can use this toll-free call-in number, 877-210-5351, for the congressional switchboard. Or click on the blue Take Action link above to find the phone numbers for your senators and representative.

Status of NHTF Funding

The House and Senate have until December 18 to enact the FY10 Department of Defense appropriations bill. This is a "must pass" bill. House and Senate housing leaders are in agreement to attach the NHTF funding proposal. But all Senate and House offices need to hear your support for including funding for the NHTF and the project-based vouchers in this bill in order to ensure it happens.

How Your Calls Can Help

Senators and Representatives need to know that their constituents support NHTF funding in this last-chance legislative vehicle. To help make your case, NLIHC has estimates of how much your state will receive from an initial $1 billion capitalization and how many construction and permanent jobs will be created. These estimates are available at: http://www.nlihc.org/doc/NHTF-State-Estimates.pdf

This is It! Congress will adjourn for 2009 after it enacts the FY10 defense spending bill. There will not be another opportunity to enact NHTF funding until sometime later in 2010.

If you can make one more round of calls to your Representative and Senators, we believe we can secure NHTF funding and move forward in 2010 to allocate these precious resources for the production and preservation of homes affordable to extremely low income households in early 2010.

Thank you for your time and dedication.

Updated: Metro Meeting Recap, New Sub Area Cost Burden Table.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Update: I added names of organizations that submitted written comments, Housing Land Advocates and REACH Community Development.
---------

The Thursday Dec. 10th Metro Council meeting went pretty much as I anticipated, with Council accepted the Urban Growth Report without any changes.Nonetheless, I thought that there were positives to take away from the meeting:

There were a total of 7 people who testified on the UGR, ALL testimony included comments on the affordable housing needs section of the UGR.
Two additional organizations filed written comments on the affordable housing needs component of the UGR. These organizations were Housing Land Advocates and REACH Community Development.
For first time Council members heard directly from affordable housing community about the extent of the cost burden problem.
Data problems in the UGR are now part of the public record.
The Council is on record as saying that "policies" would be determined next year, via changes to the Framework plan. (I encourage advocates to pay careful attention to proposed changes in the Framework and Functional plans, including deletions of existing requirements).

Testifying organizations included City of Portland Planning Bureau, Northwest Housing Alternatives, Coalition for a Livable Community, Oregon ON, the Community Housing Fund ( Washington County), and a developer/attorney, and me. REACH Community Development and Northwest Land Advocates submitted written comments. I am VERY appreciative of ALL who took the time to appear or submit written comments.

Audio Video Resources
Audio of the Council meeting should be available in a few days from THIS website, look for the Dec 10th session. Streaming video will also likely show up in a few days HERE.

New Subarea Cost Burden Table
One of defects that I found in the written report was absence of table showing renter cost burdens by sub area. I have now created such a table using Census Tract level data previously sent to me by Metro. (Table HERE replaces ALL other drafts I have done and is DRAFT until I confirm with Metro).

Wow, That Was Quick: House Passes Omnibus FY 2010 Spending Bill.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Was one hour of debate on Thursday AM. Doesn't look like single Republican voted for the bill.

Bill will now move to Senate for action.

Bill web site is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Congressional Directory.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:00:00 +0000

More than you ever wanted to know is in government publication HERE.

Oregon delegation profiles in PDF are HERE.

Also includes contact, names, and bios for Cabinet agency officials; HUD section (may be a little out of date as former Commissioner is shown) is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Gets New Chief Operating Officer; Former PA. Welfare Agency Head.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:50:00 +0000

I recall this being a new position being created, historically this would have been role for HUD's Deputy.

Philadelphia Inquirer news story is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update:Breaking: FY 2010 HUD Appropriations Conference Report Language.

housepdx@gmail.com (Tom Cusack) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:55:00 +0000

Update: I pulled out the Oregon HUD Congressional directed (AKA earmark ) funding from conference report. Three projects, $1.3 million:

Salem, Mill Creek employment center, pg 239, $500,000
Coos Bay, dock equipment, pg 254, $340,900
Pendleton rodeo facilities, pg 254, $487,000
Total $1,327,900

---------------------------
On a VERY preliminary basis it appears that there MAY be agreement on a conference committee versions of the HUD -Transportation appropriations bill that is part of a larger omnibus appropriations bill.

Appears that Conference Report and Bill may be introduced in House at noon today; full House and Senate consideration will be required before Bill can be signed into law. I would expect usual delays because of amendments and Senate logjam.

Document HERE should open to the HUD Section of the bill conference committee explanation.(Summary table of HUD amounts runs from PDF pages 283-296).

Actual legislative language is HERE, HUD Section starts at page 114, ends at page 212.

(Both conference report and bill links above include handwritten comments, mark outs etc. Eventually cleaner versions of both will appear at Thomas website for bill (H.R. 3288); link is HERE).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.