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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 9 FREDDIE MAC'S CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER ON DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION In an effort to better represent underserved communities as well as support ongoing diversity initiatives in the mortgage industry, Freddie Mac has announced the opening of a Borrower Help Center in McComb, Mississippi, according to a recent post by Dwight Robinson, SVP of Human Resources, Diversity and Inclusion, and Chief Diversity Officer at Freddie Mac. Robinson notes that this initiative isn't new—it is the 14th center of its kind throughout the country; however, what makes this location unique is its locale. First, it is the first located in the lower Mississippi Delta, serving a rural community with a median household income of $29,720. African-Americans also make up 66 percent of the total population, and have a homeownership rate much lower than that of the regional average—50.0 percent—compared to 70.9 percent. Freddie Mac's effort hasn't gone unnoticed. According to Robinson, "Staff at our borrower help centers primarily help consumers by phone or appointment, but McComb is different. Since February, the McComb site has seen a tremendous number of walk-ins per month, making it far and away the most popular of our 14 centers." Overall, 500-plus people have walked through the door to further their education on mortgage education and foreclosure assistance in the last three months. Demand for the location's services were so great that Freddie Mac expanded its reach from three to 11 counties in the region. Fulfilling the dream of homeownership for these underserved communities is one of Freddie Mac's main goals, and it is initiatives such as this that are championed by organizations such as the Five Star Institute's American Mortgage Diversity Council, which works to usher the industry into a new era of inclusion through a continued dialogue on ways to improve and evolve. A LOOK AT BUBBLE RISK IN HOUSING UBS Global released its 2017 Real Estate Bubble Index in October. e Index score is a weighted average of the following five standardized city subindices: price-to-income and price-to-rent (fundamental valuation), change in mortgage-to-GDP ratio, change in construction- to-GDP ratio (economic distortion), and relative price-city-to-country indicator. Some cities across the country show signs of an oncoming housing bubble, even though most home prices in U.S. cities remain below their 2008 peak in real terms. However, San Francisco, California, is an exception, where real prices have increased by almost 65 percent since 2011, according to the report. In addition, the report noted that "the city shows signs of overvaluation but no bubble risk, given its strong economic fundamentals amid the astonishing boom of tech companies." Los Angeles, California, is an overvalued metro as well, as since 2012 prices have increased at twice the rate of the national average. Boston, Massachusetts, has grown at a rate of 15 percent in the last four years, in line with the national average, while New York and Chicago "have outpaced more traditional industries." Overall, the report discovered that New York and Boston were fairly valued, while Chicago is undervalued. Compared to the rest of the world, New York is one of the most expensive and unaffordable markets in the world, even though the report mentions that the metro is fairly valued. For an average, highly skilled worker, it would take 11 years to afford a 650 square-foot apartment. e report notes that this could be due to declining population growth and increased financial burden, which if continued, could limit financial affordability even more. Q2 2017 brought an additional 48,760 foreclosure prevention actions to keep struggling homeowners in their home, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Q2 2017 Foreclosure Prevention Report. KNOW THIS

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