Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/23/2008
My friend and fellow houser Bo McCarver has agreed to share with the Texas housers blog the housing related storiesContinue Reading
Category: National issues
Recalling the prehistory of public housing in Texas
Watch our interview with Professor Fox on the origins of public housing in Texas. A number of years ago KarenContinue Reading
Just how crazy can the WSJ editorial page be? Check out the attack on the housing trust fund.
On July 8 the Wall Street Journal editorial page let loose on the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund in anContinue Reading
When housing advocates sell out bad things happen
I’ve been complaining about it for years, Now that the New York Times has said it maybe folks will takeContinue Reading
The effect of the Fannie/Freddie meltdown on affordable housing
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares are falling like a rock. The Bush Administration is said to be working onContinue Reading
The Texas mortgage industry needs to take a hard look in the mirror
After reading Richard Bitner’s new book, Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider’s Tale of Geed, Fraud and Ignorance IContinue Reading
The voice of consumers is missing in judging subsidized housing
Low income tenants are seldom consulted about the quality of housing that the government builds for them. I have longContinue Reading
Nonprofit FHA downpayment assistance scheme nets 19% Texas defaults
I’m sorry if this makes me sound like an affordable housing hertic but this bothers me. NPR reports there areContinue Reading
Housers need to shun “over-opinionization” and appreciate the big picture
One of the occupational diseases of working in affordable housing is overspecialization leading to “over-opinionization”. This malady infects housing practitionersContinue Reading
State of the Nation’s Housing – it’s getting worse
I know I have been mostly blogging about problems lately. All of this negative housing news can be depressing. IContinue Reading
A honest critique of media foreclosure prevention pablum
My friend and sometimes colleague Robert Doggett eviscerates an example of the typical advice story the media dishes out toContinue Reading
National fixes for post disaster housing programs
I have posted the testimony I presented to Congress regarding how the federal government can betterprovide long-term housing disaster assistanceContinue Reading
Understanding the role of GSEs, HUD and affordable housing in the subprime crisis
A page 1 story in the Washingtom Post Tuesday laid a major part of the blame for the subprime lendingContinue Reading
At least we are better off than Mississippi and Alabama
Watch my testimony before the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the House Financial Service Committee, or, better yet,Continue Reading
FEMA and HUD: not who you would want to depend on to throw you a life preserver
The House Financial Services Committee called HUD and FEMA to testify about when the lead federal agencies for hurricane reliefContinue Reading
We have not learned the lessons of Katrina
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina we wondered what we could do to help. We settled on four things: 1)Continue Reading