(RECAP: In July 2015, HUD’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) alleged that some state housing financing agencies’ (HFAs’) down payment help programs are violating FHA requirements and putting the FHA mortgage insurance fund at unnecessary risk. In this brief, we review the publicly available data to assess their concerns. We find that the number of loans for which a possible premium was charged is small and that state HFA DPA loans are net present value positive, not negative, to the FHA insurance fund.)

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(RECAP: On October 24, HUD published in the Federal Register the initial implementation guidance for the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act (HOTMA). HOTMA, which President Obama signed into law in July, makes several modifications to housing help programs, including streamlining Housing Choice Voucher (voucher) program inspections, simplifying the requirements for project basing vouchers, and providing public housing agencies (PHAs) greater flexibility to transfer funding between their operating and capital funds. HUD’s guidance clarifies which statutory provisions went into effect immediately upon the President signing HOTMA into law and which provisions will be phased in as HUD promulgates further regulations.)

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(RECAP: U.S. homebuyers were overall more pessimistic about the market in October, according to the latest Fannie Mae Home Buy Sentiment Index (HPSI). The index last month dropped another 1.1 points to 81‒‒the third decrease in as many months‒‒and four of the six components that comprise the HPSI fell during October as well. According to the index, the share of consumers reporting significantly higher income over the past year experienced the largest drop, decreasing 8 percent (to 4 percent overall), the lowest it has been in more than three years. Consumers expecting home prices to go up in the next year fell 3 percent, and those who expect mortgage rates to drop and those who are confident about not losing their job each dropped 1 percent last month.)

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