DS News

94 VIRGINIA UVA Professor's Essays Shed Light on Low-Income Housing Struggles One part of a collection of essays published by the American Enterprise Institute is focusing on housing policy issues. From the book "A Safety Net at Works," edited by Robert Doar, this section revealed how reforming housing policies could help reduce poverty. Concerning this issue, Ed Olsen, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Univer- sity of Virginia, offered his insight about how the current system is not doing underprivileged Americans any justice—at least not yet. Touching on the most noteworthy aspects of his essay, Olsen writes that the federal govern- ment finances the bulk of low-income housing assistance in the U.S. through a large number of programs with a combined cost of more than $50 billion a year. However, the most significant issue is that low-income housing programs do not offer as- sistance to many of the poorest families that are eligible for them. Instead, eligible families that need assistance must get on a waiting list. According to Olsen, the current system of low-income housing assistance provides enormous subsidies to some households while offering none to others that are equally poor. It also provides subsidies to many people who are not poor, while offering none to many of the poorest. Ultimately, Olsen believes all that is needed is better housing policies. "Well-designed reforms of the current system of low-income housing assistance would substan- tially alleviate poverty with less public spending," Olsen said. In his essay, Olsen provides proposed reforms that would provide housing assistance to millions of additional people without spending more mon- ey. e proposed reforms deal with all parts of the current system—active construction programs, existing privately owned housing projects, public housing, and the housing voucher program. Virginia Beach Tops Best Cities List e No. 1 best city to live in? According to a July ranking by WalletHub, it's Virginia Beach, Virginia. WalletHub factored in housing costs, home- ownership rates, income growth, percentage of the population below the poverty line, percent of the population insured, percent of the population with a high school diploma, workweek, restaurants and coffee shops per capita, walk and bike score, and crime rate when determining its list. e top five cities overall, based on affordability, economy, safety, education and health, and quality of life, included Virginia Beach, Seattle, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. Virginia Beach also ranked in the top slot for the highest homeownership rate and had the lowest percentage of the population living below the poverty line. Virginia Beach also has one of the highest percentages of educated adults, second only to Seattle, but conversely also had the second-highest average of weekly work hours. is coastal city also boasted the lowest crime rate in the country. According to WalletHub, the No. 2 best city—Seattle—has the second-highest income growth behind Washington, D.C., and has the fifth highest percentage of insured in the country. At No. 3 was Pittsburgh. e city came in fourth for percentage of population with a high school diploma, though it failed to make the top five in any other individual category. e No. 4 best city to live in was San Diego, and No. 5 was Colorado Springs, which also came in with one of the highest percentages of people with a high school diploma. Connecticut Planet Realty, LLC Sales@CTREOTEAM.com 203-982-4985 cell www.CTREOTEAM.com Security • Preservation • Disposition Steve Rivkin WASHINGTON, D.C. GSE Optimistic Despite Inventory Issues Freddie Mac remains optimistic about the future of the housing market, despite dwindling inventory, rising home prices, and increased interest rates that would otherwise indicate a downturn, according to the Enterprise's Out- look Report for the month of July. e report examined inventory shortages and the fall of residential construction, which has dropped 14 percent since year-end 2016, further deepening the inventory shortage. Freddie's report noted that the lack of hous- ing starts is not because there isn't a market for it—or due to regulations or land costs—but rather to the rising costs of building materials and a shortage of skilled laborers. e number of skilled laborers returning to the workforce has still not hit its prerecession numbers, mostly due to increased enforcement of immigration laws and problems with coaxing millennials into the construction industry. e report also notes that the number of open construction jobs has remained on the rise since the lowest point of the recession and that, as of May, total open construction jobs numbered around 154,000. Freddie Mac's ex- perts still, however, expect the year-end housing starts to fall around 1.27 million. Sean Becketti, Chief Economist at Freddie Mac, is confident that demand for housing will remain strong for the rest of the year, despite an expected 6 percent increase in home prices. Low mortgage rates should fuel the demand, which is expected to stay around 4 percent until the end of the year. "A decade after the Great Recession, the housing market is rebounding," Becketti said. "House prices today are higher than they were at the peak in the summer of 2006, near-record- low mortgage rates have boosted housing de- mand, and sales volume is robust. e spoiler is the lean inventory of houses for sale. Nationally, just over five months of supply is for sale, and hot markets are much tighter than the national average. So far, residential construction is not doing much to fill the gap." In addition to this report, Freddie Mac re- cently announced it will be changing its require- ments for Home Possible Mortgages, which includes Home Possible Advantage Mort- gages—Freddie's low down payment mortgage options. As of November 1, 2017, the current 1 percent contribution requirement, before gifts or New Jersey Lisa G Lopez Broker of Record Home Alliance Realty 142 E. Bay Ave Manahawkin, NJ 08050 609-978-9009 (o) 609-384-5109 (c) lglopez@verizon.net www.HomeAllianceRealty.com www.LisaLopezProperties.com

• Cover