One of the most prominent thought leaders in the mortgage and real estate sectors has faulted the Biden White House for a “significant leadership void” on the subject of housing.
David H. Stevens, the former president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, complained in a National Mortgage News interview that the Federal Reserve created the current housing market crisis when it “overcorrected during Covid by driving rates, putting too much stimulus in the economy, and now they’re overcorrecting on the backside driving rates higher than anybody ever anticipated, and putting the burden squarely on the shoulders of first-time homebuyers who are struggling to qualify for a mortgage.”
Making a bad situation worse, he added, was the failure of the Biden White House, which he blamed for “a lack of cohesive policy around creating more affordable housing units.” While noting that affordable housing was not a priority under the previous two administrations – Stevens was commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration during the first term of the Obama presidency – he bemoaned the absence of a go-to person for housing issues in today’s Executive Branch.
“As you look at the country right now, who’s responsible for housing policy?” he said. “If it’s transportation, that’s Pete Buttigieg. If it’s the environment, it’s the secretary of energy. They have broad authorities, but when it comes to housing, we’ve taken apart the value of a cabinet position called the Department of Housing. Since 2008, the Great Recession, we’ve moved the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of HUD and created FHFA. So, it’s a separate regulator responsible for Fannie Mae Freddie Mac. The Federal Home Loan Banks are independent from the President. We took all the Office of Regulatory Affairs which used to report to me as the Commissioner of FHA and moved it over to this new bureau called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”
Stevens, who runs the Mountain Lake Consulting firm focused on the real estate finance sector, observed that more federal mortgages were “being done at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Agriculture,” which further adds to the confusion on the issue.
“There is no single authority with no single leader in the Biden cabinet that has a level of clout needed to create a national sense of urgency around resolving [housing-related] problems,” he said. “The first priority here is leadership and I think what we’re facing in this country is a really significant leadership void. The unfortunate impact of this is that it’s literally destroying the hopes and aspirations of younger Americans who want to buy a home.”
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He’s a mortgage guy. Of course he wants a place at the table.
Meantime, 8 MIL property on less than an acre recently sold in PV AZ.
High end buyers are not holding back.
I agree, The current administration is fast-forwarding an already bad situation. The last 3 administrations completely failed showing any leadership for affordable housing. They were all sitting back while poacher investors picked up all the remaining foreclosures for years. Then they all started remodeling all the old houses that were out of code. Fastfoward to COVID lock downs and pumping too much money into the economy on an already bad inventory disaster. Houses selling 200-300k more than they are worth with around 32% buyers remorse. About the same on families living pay check to paycheck.
This guy is a big part of the housing crisis! He did not publish my comment of yesterday, because he disagrees with my opinion. The problem is Greed! Our entire real estate industry is the major cause of this problem. We have done this, not Trump, Biden, Obama or Bush. Our market is being manipulated to make the USA
a nation of renters. The whole country is becoming “A Company Town”, comprised working people living off of the crumbs of the investors and the fake term “Job Creators”.
Both Trump and Biden gave out large stimulus checks to all the citizens.
Trump also wanted to increase the amount of the checks and wanted to personally sign the checks before they were mailed out! – e.g. President Trump on Tuesday night asked Congress to amend the nearly $900 billion stimulus bill passed just one day before, describing the legislation as “a disgrace” and suggesting he would not immediately sign off on aid for millions of Americans.
The low interest rates were used by investors to purchase and resell at extra high prices, creating the problem we have now. All our problems are driven by greed and not by who is president or in congress. We will have a balloon explosion in the housing market very soon and it is our own fault.
A disconcerting propaganda article promoting a banking “influencer” who, along with Tim Geithner as Obama’s Housing Team, contributed to the “Bank BAILOUTS, caused by puer Bush’s presidency. The “Leadership equation” in this article is not at all a voice for individual home buyers, but is totally a voice for mega-banks and housing conglomerates. 2-QUESTIONS:
(1) Is wrenews.com publishing this propaganda article to distract from the disastrous faux leadership within the GOP-controlled House of Representatives?
(2) Is this wrenews.com’s attempt to transfer the GOP’s failure of leadership onto President Biden?If so, SHAME SHAME on partisan reporting.
No, we’re just reporting the news.
Biden White House Has a ‘significant leadership void’ PERIOD.