HUD Assisted FHA Project Where First Lady Was Born Getting Preserved.

Story in WSJ (at bottom HERE) says that Parkway Gardens in Chicago has been acquired by Related and Wells Fargo venture. Says acquisition price for 694 unit project was about $40 million and plan is to spend $40 million on rehab, and extend low income use by another 30 years.  

From web sources, first lady is quoted as saying she was born while family lived in project, but appears that grandparents lived in project and not her family?

anything could have happened, you know, and I realize … looking back on the … where my grandparents lived, they lived in this housing development called Parkway Gardens. I was actually born there. But I saw it as a wonderful, small apartment building. That’s how I remember it. But now when I pass it, it’s … I was like, God, I never saw that apartment in the way that I’m seeing it now … you know, without … but that’s where my grandparents lived. But it was different in the ’70s than it was in 2009. Those were different neighborhoods, different communities.

From web sources looks like this 100% assisted project may have been originally financed as a cooperative and at least once was foreclosed upon by HUD. 1988 story HERE provides some background about acquisition by non profit after default.  From HUD MF and FHA databases it also appears that property was refinanced as a Section 223a/223f loan as recently as 2003.

Map of project is HERE.

Readers may recall that President Obama also lived with his grandparents in a FHA insured multifamily project in Hawaii, Punahou Circle Apartments.  [Prior blog post is HERE]. I think we can safely say that it is highly unlikely that ANY future first family will have had such a direct personal connection to HUD/FHA programs.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Draft Comparison: 2010 vs 2000 Oregon Homeownership Rates/Gaps--Some Progress But Not for African Americans/ Native Hawiian/ Pac Islanders.

After an alert reader provided a link to a Salem Statesman Journal story HERE about an increase in the Oregon Hispanic home ownership rate, I decided to do a quick comparison between 2010 and 2000 Census Oregon home ownership rates.

I am hopeful that someone else will check data from Census to confirm my calculations, but for now my DRAFT comparison is HERE in a two page PDF table. 

The table shows that in Oregon :

1. Overall home ownership rates decreased by 3.2%. 
2. White non Hispanic HO rates decreased by 2.6%
3. African American HO rates decreased significantly by 12.1% [In a decade my calculations are that Oregon added only a net increase of 813 African American homeowners].
4. Native Hawaiian and Pac Islander HO rates also decreased by 4.5%
5. American Indian and Alaska Native HO rates decreased by 1.6%
6. Asian HO rates increased significantly by 11.8%
7. Hispanic HO rates also increased significantly by 8.9%.
8. Except for Asians, minority HO gaps in 2010 remain high, and those gaps actually increased for both African Americans and for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. 
9. Finally, as I have noted previously Oregon add 10,000 more rental households than owner occupied households in the last decade. (97,000 vs 87,000). Moreover, the rate of growth of rental households was double the rate of growth of home owner households (20% vs. 10%).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Census 2010 Oregon: Compare Home Ownership Rates, Including Minority HO Rates and Gaps, for 1,200+ Geographies Down to Census Tract Level.

Using new Census 2010 data for Oregon that just became available today I have created a new Excel workbook HERE. The one worksheet in the file allows you to EASILY compare side by side home ownership and rental household related data for up to three areas that you will choose from a pull down list of more than 1,200 available Oregon geographies. 

Geographies include counties, cities/places, and census tracts ; you will be able to compare these areas on 33 separate household [NOT population] tenure dimensions including:

1. Counts of total households by race and ethnicity,
2. Counts of home owners by race and ethnicity,
3. Counts of renters by race and ethnicity,
4. Home ownership rates by race and ethnicity, and
5. Gaps in minority home ownership rates compared to  White, non Hispanic home ownership rates. (I define "Gaps" as the % increase in minority home ownership rate necessary to reach the White, non Hispanic home ownership rate. If a minority HO rate is 20% and the White non Hispanic HO rate is 40% there is a 100% minority HO rate gap--I.E. The minority HO rate would have to double to reach the White non Hispanic HO rate).

As a default the Excel file opens to a side by side comparison of data for : 

• The State of Oregon
• Multnomah County
• City of Portland

To change those areas simply choose from pull down lists that appear in the columns to the right of the three "Select Geo Area" columns. The workbook then automatically looks up the data for the geo areas you have selected. 

Once you choose your 3 geographies, you can print the results in a two page document: a PDF sample using the three default selections [State of Oregon, Multnomah County, and City of Portland] is HERE.

Downloading Tip-This workbook was created in Excel 2007 format. Some users report they cannot direct view Excel files in this format from within their browser and that Excel files they save end up with a compressed .zip file extension. My suggestion is to RIGHT CLICK and save the file to your PC. Then navigate to the file you downloaded and look at its file extension. IF it appears as .ZIP extension, change the .ZIP extension to an Excel 2007 extension (.xlsx), and THEN open the file with Excel 2007/2010. 

Notes: 

1. Worksheet has been password protected to prevent inadvertent data entry--you will ONLY be able to select the three geo areas from the pull down lists; all other values are then calculated automatically. 
2. A #DIV/0! error in the results means one of values in formula was "0", preventing a valid result from the formula.  Most often for this worksheet this could occur if there are no minority households, renter households, or minority home owners in the chosen geography. 
3. This was a complex worksheet to put together, if you discover any unusual or apparently inconsistent or incorrect data, please DO send me an email or add a comment below.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Draft Census 2010 Oregon HO Rate Data by Race, Ethnicity Does NOT Look Good.

I have taken a first look at the Census 2010 homeownership data for Oregon and it does not look good. 

With caveat that this is a DRAFT, my quick state level analysis is HERE.  Draft indicates:

1. An African American home ownership rate of 32.9%
2. A Hispanic home ownership rate of 40.2%. 
3. I don't have data readily available, but both African American and Hispanic home ownership rates appear to be significant declines from Oregon 2000 rates.
4. To reach the White, non Hispanic home ownership rate the Oregon African American home ownership rate would have to increase by 98.1%, and the Hispanic Home ownership rate would have to increase by 62%. [This is shown as "Gap"[s] in the bottom rows of the table].

If you see any errors, please send me an email or add a comment below 

Time permitting I will review this draft, make any corrections, and later publish similar data for all Oregon counties, places, and census tracts. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update: Section 8 Contract Administration Bid Protests; 84% of Units Under Protest.

GAO has updated their HUD open docket bid protest website this morning, showing a total of 48 open bid protests for the HUD Section 8 contract administration solicitation, in 30 different states. 

My NON duplicated count indicates that for ALL projects/units in ALL states, 78% [12,224] of 15,601 estimated projects and 84% [888,968] of 1,063,671 estimated units are under protest.

State HFA's Account For 12 of the 30 States Under Protest

19 of the 48 pending bid protests have been filed by state HFA's; after eliminating amended protests these account for 12 of the 30 states under protest. In addition, of the total of 28 bid awards TO state HFA's, my count is that 20 are under protest.

I have assembled a comprehensive 4 page HUD Bid Protest table HERE that lists for those 30 states only (in alpha order):

1. The current successful bidder and their state location,
2. The contractor(s) who are protesting the award and their state location(s).
3. A count of units and projects for each state. [Note that counts are repeated if there are more than one protest in a state].
4. The GAO file number for each protest.(Multiple protests in a state are indicated by a number greater than 1 to the right of the decimal of the file number, and I have sorted list in numerical order within state).
5. A field indicating the last to first chronological order of the GAO bid protest.
6. A field indicating whether the successful bidder is a state HFA. 
7. A field indicating whether the protesting bidder is a state HFA. 
8. A header that shows the non duplicated count of project and units under protest. 

This was a complex effort to put together; if you discover any errors in the post or the table please DO let me know.


Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New Study: Income Patterns Do Not Explain Metro Segregation Patterns; Limited Portland Data.

WaPo story is HERE. 

Report is HERE. Note that study focuses on segregation at Metro level and only includes metro areas with largest minority population. This means data for Portland metro for Blacks is missing, Hispanic data is included. 

The exposure of affluent Hispanics to poverty compared to all non Hispanic whites is shown as 1.02 for both Portland and Seattle. This would be the 10th BEST ranking of the 50 metro areas, but still means that, as a group, affluent Hispanics were more likely to be exposed to poverty than were ALL non Hispanic whites. [Affluent appears to have been defined as $75,000+ in household income].

Portland ranks even better when comparing all Hispanic to all non Hispanic white exposure to poverty. For this metric the ratio for the Portland metro area is 1.17 to 1, the 5th AMONG among the 50 metro areas (Seattle is ranked 10th at 1.23 to 1 ). Even with the high ranking this still means that Hispanics had a higher likelihood of being exposed to poverty than did non Hispanic whites. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Seeking Comments on Rental Alignment Draft Documents for Administrative (Not Legislative) Action.

From web page HERE, deadline for email comments on several different alignment draft reports is NLT August 26, 2011.

These reports detail rental policy alignment activities proposed to be pursued through administrative action [emphasis added]. These policy proposals are preliminary drafts have not yet been recommended for implementation.

The Rental Policy Working Group is seeking stakeholder comment on the alignment reports – please send comments to harmonization@hud.gov by August 26, 2011.

    Physical Inspections
    Income Reporting and Definitions
    Subsidy Layering Review
    Reduction in State-to-State Variability for Income Definition
    Financial Reporting
    Common Energy Efficiency Requirements
    Appraisal Primer
    Market Study Standards
    Capital Needs Assessment
    Improve Sharing of Data on Owner Defaults
    Compliance (Fair Housing MOUs)

If anyone knows on any Oregon based effort to submit joint comments on any of these drafts please email me or add a comment to this post.  [I am aware that Oregon is participating in the Physical Inspections pilot].

These efforts are part of broader HUD effort, Activities to Better Align Affordable Rental Housing Policy and Compliance at the State and Local Level. Web page for that effort is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Oregon FHA Condos, 1st Half CY 2011: Klamath County Had 43% of Home Purchase Condo Loans Outside Portland Metro Area.

I have done some analysis of FHA condo loans that are included in the purchase and refi loan totals for Oregon for the first half of CY 2011. That data is in the two page table HERE.

My impression has been that FHA was one of the few lending sources for condos but the low count of FHA condo loans in the first half makes me wonder if other lending sources are being used or if there is continuing difficulty in obtaining condo financing. [Full disclosure-I have only lived in condos during my home ownership years].

Some observations about first half FHA condo loans in Oregon:

1. There were only 151 home purchase condo loans insured.
2. Only 10 FHA condo loans were made outside of the 3 county Portland metro area. Those 10 loans included 7 purchase loans and 3 refinance loans; of the 7 purchase loans outside the Portland metro area 3 (43%) were in Klamath county/Klamath Falls.
3. There were 202 condo loans of all types made in the 5 Portland metro counties out of a universe of 3,720 home purchase and refinance loans in those same 5 counties.
4. FHA condo loans of all types represented only 3.1% of the statewide total of FHA purchase and refi loans (excluding HECM's), that share increased slightly to 5.4% of the FHA purchase and refi loans in the 5 county Portland metro area.
5. For FHA home purchase loans, condos represented 3.5% of statewide all home purchase loans, and 6.1% in the 5 county Portland metro area. 
6. Washington county had the largest county count of condo loans, with 101.
7. Portland had the largest city count of FHA insured condos with 113 (34 of these were in Washington county, 4 were in Clackamas county, and 75 were in Multnomah county).

 Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

CY 2011 Through June: County Breakout of $1.5 Billion in Oregon FHA Loans, With Full Year CY 2010 Statewide Comparison.

I have prepared two tables in a 3 page PDF HERE. File  includes:

• A county breakout of FHA SF loans in Oregon for CY 2011 through June by loan type. (Home Purchase, Refi, and HECM).
• By loan type, a statewide comparison of first half CY 2011 loan volume with full year CY 2010 loan volume. (This is third page of the PDF).

Some observations about the first six months of CY 2011 Oregon FHA loan activity:

1. FHA has insured 7,530 loans, representing the commitment of more than $1.5 billion in private funds.
2. Of that total, 4,272 loans were used to purchase a home, with loan commitments that exceeded $803 million. (That's 53% of total dollars, and 57% of the total number of loans). The remainder of loans were refinance loans, including reverse mortgage loans (HECM's).
3. Oregon FHA SF loan volumes are 38% of record full CY 2010 totals.
4. Compared to full year CY 2010, the amount of the average FHA insured home purchase loan is down 5.2% statewide and 6.2%  in the 5 county Portland metro area of Oregon.
5. The average HECM loan was $81,000+ more than the average home purchase loan; 67% of HECM loans were made outside the Portland metro area, compared to only 46% of regular refinance loans. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.