Affordable Housing Nationwide

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan issued a statement today following the United States Senate's adoption of an amendment extending the Gulf Coast Opportunity Zone (GO Zone) Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) placed in service date by two years, to December 31, 2012. Donovan and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sent a letter to U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu earlier this week, expressing the Administration's support of the amendment she sponsored and was adopted today.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that it is charging two Poughkeepsie, New York-area landlords with violating the Fair Housing Act for allegedly refusing to allow a Vietnam-era veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to have a therapeutic service dog in his apartment. In addition, HUD's charge contends that the landlords, Gerald and Patrick Paribelli, who manage and own the Apartment Buildings of South Street Builders, Inc., in Highland, NY, retaliated against the veteran by threatening to evict him because he filed a housing discrimination complaint.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in partnership with the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network, today announced the launch of PreventLoanScams.org.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in partnership with the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network, today announced the launch of PreventLoanScams.org.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Nevada Senator Harry Reid today announced up to $1.3 million in emergency technical assistance to help reverse the effects of foreclosure and abandonment in certain neighborhoods in the City of Las Vegas and Clark County. The unprecedented aid announced today is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is part of the Obama Administration's plan to help communities hardest hit by the downturn in the housing market.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Nevada Senator Harry Reid today announced up to $1.3 million in emergency technical assistance to help reverse the effects of foreclosure and abandonment in certain neighborhoods in the City of Las Vegas and Clark County. The unprecedented aid announced today is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is part of the Obama Administration's plan to help communities hardest hit by the downturn in the housing market.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded $26.5 million in "sweat equity" grants to produce at least 1,500 affordable homes for low-income individuals and families. Funded through HUD's Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP), the funding awarded today, along with the labor contributed by these households, will significantly lower the cost of homeownership.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded $26.5 million in "sweat equity" grants to produce at least 1,500 affordable homes for low-income individuals and families. Funded through HUD's Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP), the funding awarded today, along with the labor contributed by these households, will significantly lower the cost of homeownership.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that it is charging a San Juan, PR, housing developer with violating the Fair Housing Act by allegedly denying a homeowner with disabilities an accessible parking space close to her home, even though the woman can only walk very short distances. HUD's charge further alleges that the developer, HAL Development Corporation (HAL), offered her the use of a handicapped parking space on a first-come, first-served basis; an option that was unacceptable, given the homeowner's mobility limitations.

WASHINGTON - Ted Tozer was sworn in today as the President of the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). Tozer will be responsible for ensuring Ginnie Mae safely guarantees the principal and interest payments on mortgage-backed securities (MBS) backed by loans insured or guaranteed by the FHA, VA, HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing, and the USDA's Rural Development Housing and Community Facilities Programs.

This IPED conference will be held May 18th and 19th, 2010 in Chicago. Recent times have brought many new opportunities and challenges to our industry. The liquidity crunch created by the global economic crisis continues to affect our industry—making it even more difficult to develop affordable housing around the country. At the same time, changes in policy at HUD and the implementation of the incentives in the stimulus package have dramatically changed how affordable housing and community development deals get done. Led by industry experts, this conference will provide candid insights, observations, and real-life examples for how to address these issues in a changing economy. It will convene some of the most experienced developers, financiers, technical experts, policy makers, and advocates who are redefining how affordable housing and community development are being developed in this country.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced HUD will speed federal disaster assistance to 31 counties and nine cities in Virginia and provide support to homeowners and low-income renters forced from their homes following a severe winter storm and snowstorm.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued today the results of its 90-day assessment of the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), which found that the agency has suffered from severe management, operational and staffing problems. The operational assessment was prepared by Gilmore Kean, LLC, the consultant HUD named in October 2009 to stabilize and assess HANO.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today released January data for the Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), demonstrating that the number of homeowners receiving immediate relief and converting to permanent modifications continues to rise. More than 116,000 homeowners now have permanent modifications, nearly doubling the number from December, which also marked record progress. An additional 76,000 permanent modifications have been offered, and are waiting only for the borrower's signature. In total, Over 1 million homeowners have started trial modifications and nearly 1.3 million offers for trial modifications have been extended to homeowners.

WASHINGTON - Doug Criscitello was sworn in today as the Chief Financial Officer at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Criscitello is responsible for overseeing the financial management practices that ensure the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development meets the needs of the housing community. His duties include preparing and accounting for HUD's budget, strategic and budget planning, and establishing and maintaining financial systems which process millions of transactions annually to support HUD projects.

Federal government could be paying more than half of tab next year In a stark reminder of growing costs, the government estimated today that health care consumed a record 17.3 percent of all spending in the U.S. economy last year - or about $2.5 trillion.

Investing to make your home more energy efficient may lower the bills, but it may not boost its price, partly because these investments aren't fully valued by appraisers.

Luckily for banks, the commercial real estate time bomb just keeps on ticking.

When faced with a financial crisis, consumers more often are opting to pay their credit-card bills first before turning to their mortgage payments, according to a report released by Trans Union Wednesday.

A report Wednesday from Automatic Data Processing suggested that the pace of job cuts may be slowing, while a separate report from Challenger said planned layoffs hit a 5-month high in January.