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110 "While some parts of the country are ben- efitting from low unemployment rates, many rural areas continue to see limited opportuni- ties and flattening or declining wage growth," said Mike Dawson, VP of Single-Family Affordable Lending Strategies and Initiatives at Freddie Mac. "rough our work with Nex- tJob, and by partnering with leading local orga- nizations on the front lines of this problem, we are capitalizing on the success of our past employment programs to help the next frontier of unmet workforce development needs. is partnership will provide meaningful opportu- nities to create and sustain homeownership for families across rural America." "We're thrilled to expand our partnership with Freddie Mac. ey are on the forefront of exploring ways to help aspiring and existing homeowners who need a job to achieve or maintain homeownership," said John Court- ney, CEO of NextJob. "Many rural job seekers have fewer job opportunities, so they must excel in finding jobs that translate their prior skills into new occupations and positioning themselves to grow within an organization." Designated high-needs areas under the Duty to Serve plan include middle Appala- chia, the lower Mississippi Delta, Colonias, and other tracts located in persistent poverty counties. Initial partners include CDC of Brownsville, Texas; D&E in Mississippi; FAHE in Kentucky's Appalachia region; and HOPE Enterprise Corporation, headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi. In some of these designated high-needs areas, the unemployment rate is much higher compared to the national average. For example, in the Mississippi Delta, the unemployment rate was 6.2 percent compared to the national average of 3.8 percent for April 2018. Issaquena County of the Mississippi Delta had an unem- ployment rate as high as 11.6 percent in 2017. "It can be difficult to have a direct plan of action to get you from where you are to where you want to be—this partnership will provide our members with that plan and get them to where they want to be faster," said James Hunter, SVP of Mortgage Lending at HOPE Enterprise Corporation. "It's not just about a job. It's about building a career to sustain homeownership for the long run. is initia- tive is really groundbreaking in underserved markets and we expect it to be very successful," Hunter added. To help struggling homeowners, Freddie Mac will alert its servicers who have Home Possible mortgages and determine if the bor- rowers are eligible to receive NextJob services. Once an approved borrower is engaged with NextJob, he or she will be eligible for one- on-one job coaching, access to "Job Talk" webinars, and NextJob's proprietary online job search training program. Additionally, partner organizations can refer prospective borrow- ers to receive employment or re-employment services under the initiative. Freddie Mac launched its first homeowner re-employment pilot in June 2015 with NextJob and other lenders to help borrowers secure em- ployment and avoid foreclosure. Homeowners who took part in the pilot increased their job search skills by 32 percent and acquired jobs at nearly triple the normal rate of re-employment. Many borrowers were classified as long-term unemployed before the program and, on aver- age, borrowers acquired new employment in just over four months. Freddie Mac's Duty to Serve plan focuses on supporting underserved markets by financ- ing more rural and manufactured housing and preserving more affordable housing for homebuyers and renters nationwide. e plan aligns with Freddie Mac's mission to stabilize communities, prevent foreclosures, responsi- bly expand credit, educate future borrowers, counsel current borrowers and build a better housing finance system. crisis. In 2009, housing starts plummeted to just 4,633. While home building is increasing over the past few years, there were 12,832 starts recorded in 2017, about half the pre-crisis level. Pro Teck estimated that if 38,000 homes were built per year in Nevada starting now, it would take until 2028 to meet "historical market needs." In the meantime, that leaves the Nevada housing market with low inventory and steeply rising prices. e Greater Las Vegas Associa- tion of Realtors reported a 16.2 percent decline in housing inventory over the year in June. "Unfortunately, the slowdown in produc- tion during the housing crisis has put the entire state significantly behind, a phenomenon we are seeing across the country," said Tom O'Grady, CEO of Pro Teck. is sentiment has been iterated through- out the industry by several experts and econo- mists. e most recent National Association of Realtors Existing Home Sales Report, revealed just 4.2 months' supply of homes available at the national level, prompting NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun to say that the amount of inventory making its way to the market this spring "was not even close to being enough to satisfy demand." OREGON Freddie Mac Partners With NextJob for Employment Initiative Freddie Mac announced a new partnership with Oregon-based re-employment solu- tions company NextJob to provide job search assistance to current and aspiring homeown- ers living in high-needs and other persistent poverty areas. e initiative, undertaken as part of Freddie Mac's three-year Duty to Serve plan, serves as an expansion of the partner- ship between the two companies that will help financially distressed homeowners in these underserved markets. e effort will assist homeowners who have Freddie Mac Home Possible mort- gages increase their re-employment prospects after circumstances such as job loss, reduced hours, or other employment challenges that threaten their ability to make timely mortgage payments. e initiative will also provide assistance to aspiring homeowners in their job search with the hopes of increasing their income to a level that will help qualify them for Freddie Mac affordable loan offerings. was the noncurrent percentage for Oregon homes in June 2018, tracking both foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state. Source: Black Knight Mortgage Monitor report, released July 2018 STAT INSIGHT 2.16%

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