“They’re not that expensive, and I don’t understand how you could possibly focus a bill on your highest priorities and not include racial equity,” said David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference. “How do we tell people ‘Sorry, it’s not your bus,’ when everyone knows it’s the last bus?”
“[The LIFT Act and Waters’ down payment assistance] have to go together. Our first priority is creating homeowners and our second priority is to accelerate wealth building.” – David M. Dworkin
“When requiring vaccinations for employment, there’s a broad agreement that it serves the health and safety of workers,” Dworkin said. “But in the case of people’s homes, when the rise of the delta variant requires people to both work from home and stay at home more, putting people at risk of losing their home or doubling up with others or becoming homeless is not a responsible public health approach.”
“We absolutely need credit standards to be relaxed, but they need to be relaxed in a way that is responsible, and that really embraces the idea of compensating factors. I think that certainly, Director Thompson gets that, and that we can responsibly expand the credit box without adding unnecessary or irresponsible risk.” – David M. Dworkin
“The latest ruling to overturn the CDC’s eviction moratorium makes it all the more important to disburse the funds that have been allocated to communities to provide rent assistance to qualified renters and landlords. For over a year, many apartment owners have covered the expenses and lost rent for renters unable to pay due to the pandemic. Most are small ‘mom and pop’ landlords who depend on rental income to get by. State and local governments must do whatever is necessary to move this historic amount of support or return funds for reallocation to grantees who are successfully getting the money out.” – David M. Dworkin
“FHFA’s new housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are an important step towards increasing liquidity of the affordable housing mortgage market.” – David M. Dworkin
This is about “getting someone from a 660 to 680, not getting someone with a 590 and making them qualify. This is only for people who were otherwise on the line.” – David M. Dworkin
“The difference in underwriting requirements and borrowing costs, like loan-level price adjustments, may very well have a disparate impact from the broader market, when compared to lenders making loans they hold in portfolio, and we don’t know why that is.” – David M. Dworkin
“The introduction of rent into mortgage considerations is a significant innovation and a major step forward in expanding homeownership opportunities. This will have a material impact on mortgage applicants who are qualified but have been left out of homeownership.” – David M. Dworkin
“This new procedure will utilize information already available to lenders without adding any burden to homebuyers. By analyzing bank statements that have already been submitted, Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter automated underwriting system will be able to confirm that past rent payments were made on time. When Fannie Mae tested the system on past applicants that were not approved, 17% would have qualified using the new policy. This will have a material impact on mortgage applicants who are qualified but have been left out of homeownership.” – David M. Dworkin
