The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today is awarding $7.8 million in grants to 14 local projects in nine states to conduct a wide range of activities such as research on the cost effectiveness of home-based interventions for children with asthma and novel strategies for reducing risks from lead-contaminated soil and house dust (see attached). For the first time, HUD is awarding $2 million of those grants to improve indoor environmental conditions and links to education and medical services for asthmatic children and other residents living in public and assisted multifamily housing.

Lead is a known toxin that can impair children’s development and have effects lasting into adulthood.  It’s estimated that asthma alone costs the U.S. economy approximately $3.5 billion each year. Approximately 16.4 million Americans currently have asthma, including nearly 7 million children 18 years of age and younger.

“Homes with lead or other health hazards can injure children and worsen conditions such as asthma and HUD wants to ensure that children have a healthy place to call home,” said Jon Gant, Director of HUD’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control. “These grants will not only help to clean up lead and other home health hazards but will support the development of innovative new approaches to improve and control asthma in children.”

The following is a breakdown of the funding announced today:

Even though lead-based paint was banned for use in the home in 1978, HUD estimates that approximately 24 million homes still have significant lead-based paint hazards today.  Lead-contaminated dust is the primary cause of lead exposure and can lead to a variety of health problems in young children, including reduced IQ, learning disabilities, developmental delays, reduced height, and impaired hearing.  At higher levels, lead can damage a child’s kidneys and central nervous system and cause anemia, coma, convulsions and even death.However, lead is not the only danger threatening families and children in the home.  Asthma is now recognized as a leading cause of school and work absences, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations that disproportionately impacts low income, minority populations.

The following is a state-by-state breakdown of the funding announced today:

Grant program abbreviations are as follows:

AIPAMH – Asthma Interventions in Public and Assisted Multifamily Housing
HHTS – Healthy Homes Technical Studies
LTS – Lead Technical Studies

www.hud.gov

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded $40.8 million to 108 fair housing organizations and non-profit agencies in 36 states and the District of Columbia to educate the public and combat housing and lending discrimination (see attached list of grantees). This year’s award represents a $13.2 million increase over last year’s award and includes $10 million to fund activities that address lending discrimination, including mortgage rescue scams.

“The record increase in support to local fair housing and community organizations demonstrates the Obama Administration’s firm commitment to ending housing discrimination and providing help to families victimized by mortgage scams,” stated HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.

“Ending housing discrimination takes more than the efforts of Washington,” said John Trasviña, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity.  “These grants enable community groups all over the nation to help HUD enforce the Fair Housing Act, make the public more aware of their fair housing rights and ensure that housing providers understand their responsibilities under the law.”

The grants announced today are funded through HUD’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP)and will be used to investigate allegations of housing discrimination, educate the public and the housing industry about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act, and work to promote equal housing opportunities.

The categories grants were awarded in include:

• Private Enforcement Initiative grants (PEI)– HUD awarded $28 million to support organization that investigate alleged housing discrimination, and enforce the Fair Housing Act and state and local laws that are substantially equivalent to the Act. Groups will also use the funding to conduct testing to protect individuals living in minority neighborhoods from mortgage rescue scams.
• Education and Outreach Initiative grants (EOI)– HUD awarded $6.8 million to organizations that educate the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under federal, state, and local fair housing laws. Groups will also conduct fair lending workshops, community meetings, and individual counseling activities focused on homeowners at risk for discrimination.
• Fair Housing Organizations Initiative grants (FHOI) – HUD awarded $6 million to organizations serving rural and immigrant populations in areas lacking existing fair housing organizations, or otherwise underserved. Included will be activities that provide direct assistance to victims of fraudulent or predatory mortgage rescue schemes.

Prices were up slightly for Scottsdale condominiums in January, but existing-home prices fell 8 percent from a year ago, according to the latest monthly report from Arizona State University Realty Studies.

Foreclosures were down for homes and condos and traditional home sales were up 20 percent.

The Valley’s overall median price was $131,660 for homes and $85,000 for condominiums and townhouses.

January 2011

Home sales: 460 (up 12 percent)

Price: $341,195 (down 8.3 percent)

Traditional sales: 325 (up 20 percent)

Price: $370,000 (down 12 percent)

Foreclosures: 135 (down 3.6 percent)

Price: $286,080 (down 0.8 percent)

Condo sales: 270 (no change)

Price: $146,825 (up 1.3 percent)

Traditional sales: 180 (up 2.86 percent)

Price: $146,750 (up 1.2 percent)

Foreclosures: 90 (down 5.3 percent)

Price: $149,770 (up 3.3 percent)

January 2010

Home sales: 410

Price: $372,000

Traditional sales: 270

Price: $420,000

Foreclosures: 140

Price: $288,500

Condo sales: 270

Price: $144,970

Traditional sales: 175

Price: $144,975

Foreclosures: 95

Median: $144,985

Fewer residential mortgages in Arizona were delinquent and fewer notices of foreclosure had been sent at the end of fourth-quarter 2010, according to data released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington.

Arizona ranked 12th nationwide in the number of loans that are 30 days delinquent or more. However, the state remained in second place for the number of defaulted loans that have triggered foreclosure notices.

At the end of 2010, nearly 10 percent of all Arizona mortgages were delinquent, representing a drop from the third quarter.

During 2010, the foreclosure process was started on 2.3 percent of the state’s mortgages. Nevertheless, there was a increase in the number of loans in the foreclosure process, to nearly 6 percent.

Delinquency rates dropped within a variety of mortgage types, including prime adjustable- and fixed-rate mortgages, subprime ARMs, subprime fixed-rate loans, and FHA and VA loans.

It was a mixed bag for mortgage types that were in the foreclosure process, however.

Among the prime ARM loans, prime fixed loans, FHA loans and VA loans, a greater percentage were in foreclosure than a year earlier; but fewer subprime ARM loans and subprime fixed loans were in foreclosure.

Mississippi ranked first for the number of delinquencies. Nevada ranked first for foreclosure starts.

Developers and builders expect baby boomers to re-emerge in the real estate market soon, but they say boomers likely will come with a simpler agenda when it comes to what they’re looking for in a home.

“We have an opportunity to rethink a lot of the things we’ve done” in designing communities and homes that are intended for that age group, says Douglas Van Lerberghe, a land planner in Denver, who spoke during the National Association of Home Builders conference in Orlando, Fla., last month.

Housing experts predict retiring boomers will want a greater variety of housing styles, smaller homes, and developments that are restricted to older buyers.

Other high priorities they expect from this age group:

▪ Younger boomers will want to continue to work so homes close to job hubs will be important and home offices in floor plans.
▪ Walking trails are a No. 1 amenity desired by this age group.
▪ Gated access to communities and security is important.
▪ Expanded storage into garages.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today unveiled HUD’s fiscal year 2012 budget proposal. Titled Creating Strong, Sustainable, Inclusive Communities and Quality Affordable Homes the budget seeks to help lead America out of an unprecedented economic crisis and ensure our economy is competitive – growing and working for all Americans. HUD is taking responsibility for our deficit, by investing in what makes America stronger and cutting what doesn’t.

The budget provides a roadmap for HUD to work with our regional and local partners to win the future by investing in innovation, building neighborhoods that are connected to jobs and providing greater access to opportunity, so American businesses and communities are the best in the world” said Donovan. “The President has said that we need to live within our means to invest in the future. That has meant tough choices, including to programs that, absent the fiscal situation, we would not cut. But American families are tightening their belts and we need to do the same.”

The President is submitting this budget in an economic environment that is significantly improved from when the he took office.  An economy that was shrinking is growing again – and instead of rapid job loss, more than a million private sector jobs were created in the last year. But there’s still more work to be done to ensure that America and its workers can compete and win in the 21^st century.   HUD’s FY 2012 budget tackles these challenges head on in the following ways:

• by helping responsible families at risk of losing their homes and meeting the need for quality affordable rental housing;
• by transforming neighborhoods of poverty and ensuring that children there have access to the quality education we need to compete in the 21^st century;
• by rebuilding the national resource that is our federally-assisted public housing stock and ensuring that its tenants are part of the mobile, skilled workforce our new global economy requires; and,
• by leveraging private sector investments in communities to create jobs and generate the economic growth we need to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world.

HUD’s budget also reflects the need to ensure that America’s future isn’t built on a mountain of debt.   As a down payment toward reducing the deficit, the President has proposed a freeze on domestic spending for the next five years, cutting the deficit by $400 billion over 10 years and bringing non-security discretionary spending to the lowest share of the economy since President Eisenhower. Every department shares a responsibility to make tough cuts so there’s room for investments to speed economic growth.  HUD’s fiscal year 2012 budget more than meets the President’s goal:

• The Department’s $48 billion in gross budget authority is offset by $5 billion in projected FHA and Ginnie Mae receipts credited to HUD’s appropriations accounts, leaving net budget authority of $43 billion, or 1% below the fiscal year 2010 enacted level of $43.5 billion.
• To maintain this commitment to fiscal discipline, HUD will protect existing residents and made the difficult choice to reduce funding for new units and projects, including cuts to the Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnerships, and new construction components of the Supportive Housing Programs for the Elderly (202) and Disabled (811).

And because meeting the President’s State of the Union charge to “Win the Future” also means reforming government so it’s leaner, more transparent, and ready for the 21^st century, HUD proposes reforming the administrative infrastructure that oversees its programs.

• Through the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act legislative proposal that is part of this budget, HUD will simplify and rationalize the rent setting provisions of our largest program, yielding—if enacted—over $150 million in savings in the first year and over $1 billion in savings over the next half decade.
• Finally, the Transformation Initiative—important funding and programmatic flexibility Congress provided in 2010—is enabling HUD to conduct the kinds of research and demonstrations that will ensure that we are funding what works and identifying what doesn’t and what we need to do better.

“This budget reflects the Obama Administration’s recognition of the critical role the housing sector must play for the nation to experience a robust, long-term economic recovery,” Donovan said.  “Equally important, it expresses the confidence of the President in the capacity of HUD to meet a high standard of performance.  In short, while it requires hard choices to reduce the deficit, this blueprint for fiscal year 2012 is one that will deliver results for the vulnerable people and often-distressed places that HUD helps.

www.hud.gov