“Next year is going to be bad” was a refrain many of us have heard over the past week, whether at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual meeting in Nashville, the National Council of State Housing Agencies in Houston, The National Association of Home Builders leadership conference in Kansas City, or NHC’s National Advisory Council meeting in Washington. With mortgage interest rates pushing past 7 percent with no clear ceiling in sight, everyone is worried about how a much smaller mortgage market for single-family and multifamily housing will impact profits, budgets, and donations to nonprofit housing organizations. As a result, renters and apartment building developers, homebuyers and home builders, affordable housing advocates and industry trade associations are all planning for the worst and hoping for the best.
The most important impact, however, will be on our ability to serve renters and homebuyers who need our help the most. The National Housing Conference is the place where we all come together to get things done. Our record over the past five years is well-known and valued by our members and policymakers alike. We have built strong relations with both Democrats and Republicans, leveraging the relationships held by our most conservative and our most progressive members, as well as the many organizations that create tangible value in every Congressional District in America. Your membership in NHC makes this work possible. Our leverage and focus on collaboration and convening will be more important than ever in the months and years ahead of us.
Your contribution to our work – both in financial and intellectual capital – has been essential to our success. I hope that you will renew your membership as soon as possible. And for those of you who are not currently members, it’s a great time to join us. There are many levels of engagement, from the Emerging Leaders in Affordable housing for those 35 and under at just $50 per year, to our Platinum Leadership Circle at $25,000. You can review all of the levels of support and join or renew your membership at https://members.nhc.org/page/join-now.
NHC began its tenth decade with a renewed and reinvigorated leadership position in the affordable housing policy environment. Our role is to help our stakeholders develop broadly supported policies representing the highest common denominator among diverse interests. This has been demonstrated by our success enacting the $10 billion Homeowner Assistance Fund, our work with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on finding a path forward on a unified modernization plan for CRA, the creation and launch of the Black Homeownership Collaborative (BHC) which celebrated its first anniversary in Atlanta on June 20, 2022, and ongoing efforts to build bipartisan support for housing production policies.
NHC has also been a valuable advocate for affordable housing in the media. Over the past year, we have been quoted in the New York Times, The Washington Post, American Banker, Housing Wire, Forbes, MarketPlace, NBC News, PBS News Hour, CNN, and FOX Business News.
We will also be holding all of our policy events in person or blended next year and hold our Housing Visionary Awards Gala at the Anthem on June 20, 2023. Full Members receive one ticket to the Gala and a 50% discount on additional tickets. Leadership Circle members receive more Gala tickets and promotional consideration at all of our events. We hope that you will take the opportunity to renew your membership with NHC today. New members who join for 20223 can receive their membership benefits immediately.
I also invite you to attend our December 3, 2022, Solutions for Affordable Housing convening that provides the opportunity for attendees to explore the leading edge of affordable housing strategies and policy solutions. Following the November election, we expect outstanding attendance by policymakers and stakeholders alike. The event is both live and online at the National Press Club.
Our members receive our weekly Member Brief, with features like the Chart of the Week, What We’re Reading, and The Week Ahead, a detailed calendar of coming housing events and announcements. We also publish a weekly Member Note which covers major economic developments and discussion of key housing issues like the end of year housing agenda, the role of tax incentives in housing, and the single-family rental market. And you can always count on straight talk about controversial issues like the failure of Build Back Better and racial equity.
NHC depends on the financial and intellectual support of our members to our work on your behalf. We look forward to working with you over the coming year.