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68 I N D U S T R Y I N S I G H T / M I C H A E L H A R R I S By pretty much every measure, we are well into the recovery from the real estate crash that began in the United States in 2007 and subsequently spread around the world. According to IMF's Global House Price Index, an average of real house prices across 57 countries, the index has increased in each of the past 16 quarters. While prices have not yet recovered to pre-crash levels—even in countries situated in the "boom" sector, we're getting there. Well, at least most of us are. ere are still many around the world for whom housing is either not available or too expen- sive. e IMF puts these countries in its "gloom" sector. In America, we find these consumers living primarily in our larger cities. Efforts are underway now to help the hardest hit of these urban areas recover. e lessons we're learning in our own cities will change the way the rest of the world deals with the critical human need of housing in the future. A BIG PROBLEM IN BIG CITIES Some of our larger cities are facing a critical shortage of housing—especially low-income hous- ing. According to CityLab, America is currently suffering through an affordable housing crisis, with no county spared. But it's our large urban areas that are faring the worst. While rural areas currently have 62 low-income units available for every 100 low-income renting households, our cities only have 42 units per 100 families. To make matters worse, our cities are grow- ing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation's urban centers grew by 1.03 percent in 2015—nearly twice as fast as they grew in the first decade of this century. Unfortunately, this growth is coming at the expense of many of our nation's low-to-moderate income earners, who have been shut out of the housing market by high rents (leav- ing them little to save for a down payment on a new home), low inventory, and insufficient access to credit. ey are moving to the cities, but where will they live? If rents are too high, the solution may be to convert more of these new residents into home- owners. In fact, that's what the nation's largest sec- ondary market investors are hoping will happen. New mortgage loan products now exist that allow qualifying new homeowners to secure a loan with a very low down payment—if they can find a home to buy in the first place. According to Realtor.com, a number of cities made it through the downturn thanks to investors who were willing to step in, rehabilitate homes, and then resell them into the market for a profit. Nashville, Tennessee; Denver; Tampa, Florida; Phoenix; and New Orleans all made the publica- RECOVERY THROUGH REO The market may have bounced back, but with housing inventory tighter than ever, many underserved communities are getting pushed out of the market. Does the REO industry have what it takes to inch these areas further toward recovery?

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