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The gap between the amount of revenue a building will generate based on rents and what developers need to pay lenders prevent many affordable units before they even begin, according to the National Housing Conference. Without enough tax credits and grants, developers need to take out bigger loans, and many lenders won’t provide them. If the rent is genuinely affordable, the property’s net operating income will often be too low to justify.

“If we fail to address shortages in housing supply, we run the risk of fueling the fires of inflation rather than extinguishing them. The result could be ‘stagflation,’ a word most of us haven’t used in a generation–-high inflation and economic recession,” says David Dworkin, president and chief executive officer of the National Housing Conference. “This would devastate the housing economy and only exacerbate our current housing supply challenges.”

David Dworkin, a former U.S. Treasury official and State Department veteran during the twilight of the Cold War, compared the Federal Reserve Board to the Soviet Politburo. “A small group of independently powerful leaders who have risen through the ranks defers to a powerful chairman until they don’t,” said Dworkin, now president and CEO of The National Housing Conference, a D.C. nonprofit.

“The initiatives announced today are critical to eliminating racial bias, improving appraisal accuracy, and opening access to more affordable, sustainable homeownership opportunities for minority borrowers,” said David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, in a statement. “Accurate and fair appraisals are the foundation of sound mortgage underwriting and sustainable mortgages that equitably serve all Americans.”

“Given the numbers and additional costs that we’re looking at, the vast majority of first-time homebuyers are going to be pushed out of this market and will have to wait,” said David M. Dworkin, the president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, a nonprofit housing advocacy group. “Most first-time homebuyers — and certainly first-generation homebuyers — are going to struggle,” he said.

“The initiatives announced today are critical to eliminating racial bias, improving appraisal accuracy, and opening access to more affordable, sustainable homeownership opportunities for minority borrowers,” said David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, in a statement. “Accurate and fair appraisals are the foundation of sound mortgage underwriting and sustainable mortgages that equitably serve all Americans.”

David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, said the initiatives are critical to eliminating racial bias, improving appraisal accuracy and opening access to more affordable, sustainable homeownership opportunities for minority borrowers. “Accurate and fair appraisals are the foundation of sound mortgage underwriting and sustainable mortgages that equitably serve all Americans,” he said.

Cerita Battles, a managing director with JPMorgan Chase, has been named chair of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ corporate board of governors. She has been active in the mortgage industry for 25 years.
She is affiliated with several corporate boards within the mortgage industry, including the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Affordable Housing and Diversity & Inclusion councils; National Housing Conference’s Black Collaborative; Freddie Mac’s Advisory Housing Council; National Association of Real Estate Brokers; the Asian Real Estate of America’s Housing Advisory Board, and the Ability Housing Board.

The group notes that the primary tool to curb inflation is to increase interest rates, negatively affecting housing affordability. While raising interest rates may be necessary to control inflation, higher rates “increase the cost to build, preserve, and operate rental housing as well,” says the letter.

A highly diverse group of more than 40 housing leaders today sent a letter to President Biden requesting that he create a President’s Council on Housing Affordability. The leaders represent every facet of the housing industry, from affordable housing advocacy organizations to industry stakeholders.