The NAHREP National Advocacy Committee is Back in NACtion for 2023!

As the NAHREP National Advocacy Committee (the NAC) launches into its fourth year, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come. Our very first blog was published in October of 2019, where we told you what to expect when you sign up for the NAC and take action with NAHREP. Since then, we’ve had 4,462 NAC sign ups and have sent 7,373 emails and phone calls to our legislators. That’s a big deal! And a huge credit to the work all of you have done to advance our mission.

Save the date: NAHREP Capitol Hill Visits on Thursday, March 16!

Earlier this month, NAHREP met with two Congressional offices to strategize this year’s housing policy agenda. We discussed the importance of ensuring efforts to advance Latino homeownership are prioritized in upcoming legislation. While NAHREP knows the positive impacts of homeownership on Latinos and the U.S. economy, we need to make sure our political leaders are aware of this—and provide them with tangible solutions.

Chapter Feature: NAHREP Atlanta hits the ground running for advocacy in 2023!

The NAHREP Atlanta chapter has set the bar with their advocacy work over the last year – through building relationships with elected and appointed officials, hosting top ranking officials and their staff at chapter events, joining important housing coalitions, and creating educational content for their membership to keep them engaged in housing policy. This month, we interviewed NAHREP Atlanta’s Government Affairs Director Juan Mejia to find out what has made his chapter so successful and what plans the chapter has coming down the pipeline in 2023.

NAHREP joins a coalition to urge Congress to permanently extend the Mortgage Insurance Premium Tax Deduction

Last month, NAHREP joined a coalition to urge the Senate to make the current mortgage insurance premium tax deductions permanent and increase its income phaseout. For years, mortgage insurance premiums have been tax deductible and subject to an income phaseout for taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) over $100,000 (or $50,000 if single or married, filing separately). Millions of low- and moderate-income homeowners have benefited from the tax code.

Institutional or Mom & Pop Landlords: Who is most affecting the housing market?

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the topic of institutional investors, particularly in the last couple of years. In April, NAHREP released a blog that highlighted how investors have been increasingly sweeping up the little housing stock available for first-time homebuyers. Since then we’ve gotten some answers to our burning questions: who are these investors and what are they doing with these properties? New data from CoreLogic answers some of these questions and identifies current trends when it comes to investor purchases of single-family homes.

FHA announces borrowers are now eligible for private flood insurance

Last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), announced homeowners with FHA-insured mortgages are now eligible to purchase flood insurance on the private market. Previously, only flood insurance obtained through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was allowed, limiting choices for consumers. The rule change comes after years of advocacy on behalf of FHA borrowers, many of whom were required to purchase policies that were either more expensive or had less coverage than what they would have been able to obtain on the private market.

Chapter Feature: NAHREP Fairfield County excels at building relationships and taking on housing policy in their state

This month, we are featuring the NAHREP Fairfield County chapter for their great work in building relationships with elected officials and making real policy change happen! In the last year, the chapter featured Connecticut’s Governor Ned Lamont and other top-ranking housing officials within the state at their events. The chapter has worked hard to leverage existing relationships and build new ones, simply by reaching out and sharing NAHREP’s message. Due to those relationships, the chapter was able to advance NAHREP’s mission and make real policy changes happen when it was needed the most.

NAHREP joins a coalition to urge Congress to permanently extend the Mortgage Insurance Premium Tax Deduction

NAHREP joined a coalition to urge the Senate to make the current mortgage insurance premium tax deductions permanent and increase its income phaseout. For years, mortgage insurance premiums have been tax deductible and subject to an income phaseout for taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) over $100,000 (or $50,000 if single or married, filing separately). Millions of low- and moderate-income homeowners have benefited from the tax code. However, the provision’s temporary nature and low income phaseout could create a burden in allowing additional families to claim the deduction. The AGI cap has not changed since 2007, when the deduction first took effect.

Opinion: ICE’s mortgage monopoly could stifle Hispanic homeownership

Earlier this year, Intercontinental Exchange announced its’ plans to acquire Black Knight, a major provider of software that is used to originate and service mortgages. In the current market — with mortgage rates continuing to rise — the $13 billion bid for merger would create a mortgage technology monolith, which, among other things could raise consumer prices and substantially impair the multi-trillion-dollar housing market.