(RECAP: The news and research about women and money can be dreary. Women earn less than their male counterparts, pay harsher workplace penalties for pursuing parenthood, struggle more with debt, and save less for retirement. But there’s one area of personal finance where single women are outpacing men in the U.S., and it’s a significant one: home ownership. Although women have been ahead of men in NAR’s data since 1981, the gap has widened even further in recent years. Property values and mortgage lending imploded after the 2008 financial crisis, and low interest rates have made lending more appealing to new, more frugal buyers. Single women are also likelier than single men to be parenting on their own, and therefore likelier to seek stable housing for raising children. There were 8.6 million single-mother households in 2011, more than three times the 2.6 million single-father households, according to the Pew Research Center.)

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(RECAP: The largest trade group in the mortgage finance space, the Mortgage Bankers Association, released its initial plans for its recommended approach for secondary mortgage market reform, unveiling the first product from its recently formed “task force,” made up of some of the top lenders and insurers in the industry. The paper is a first look at the MBA’s plans for ending the conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie, the government-sponsored enterprises, with the full paper anticipated to come in April. Under the MBA’s plans, the entities’ purpose would be to provide sustainable credit availability to the conventional single family and multifamily mortgage market and provide equitable access to lenders of all sizes and business models. A huge difference between today’s model and the MBA’s proposed plot is the government guarantee would only be for the securities and not the entities issuing them.)

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(RECAP: New apartments being constructed near the former Virginia Intermont College are designed to address a growing need for affordable housing. Six buildings of the $9.2 million Village at Oakview complex are currently being built by G & H Contracting on the former site of the Bonham Circle apartment complex. The new Oakview Avenue units are being developed by Bristol Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Executive Director and CEO David Baldwin said. “This provides another style of affordable housing that will be affordable from the rent standpoint and very low cost on utilities,” Baldwin said. Bonham Circle included 39 public housing apartments. The new apartments will include 32 lower-income units and 16 public housing units that will be a mix of two- and three-bedroom units in a dozen buildings. Project financing included $6.72 million in low-income housing tax credits, $1.24 million public housing funding, a $950,000 mortgage loan and $300,000 from other sources.)

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