On Tuesday, Ed Delgado, President, and CEO of the Five Star Institute [1] led a discussion on the state of the housing industry at the 2018 National Property Preservation Conference in Baltimore.
“The National Property Preservation Conference has been an important forum for the industry to discuss and build consensus over policies and services impacting the mortgage market,” Delgado said. “I attribute its continued success over the past 15 years to the tireless efforts of Robert Klein, Founder of Safeguard Properties, who passed this year, to bring the industry together for this important discussion. I am honored to participate in this conference and help carry on his legacy of industry partnership fostered by this event.”
The discussion centered on an expert panel of industry thought leaders focusing on the important issues impacting the economy and the housing market today and looked at what the future may hold. After giving his own assessment on the state of the market, Delgado turned it over to the panel to hear their thoughts.
Answering questions on the state of the housing market, Rick Sharga, EVP, Carrington Mortgage Holdings [2] and Alan Jaffa, CEO, Safeguard Properties [3] touched upon hot topics such as the rising interest rates, the return of subprime mortgages and the cooling of home value growth as well as home affordability.
Giving insights into the current and future trends in property preservation, Jaffa was joined by Caroline Reaves, CEO, Mortgage Contracting Services [4], Jake Williamson, VP of Single Family Real Estate, Fannie Mae [5], and Oscar Posadas, VP, Property Management of Vendor Management, Wells Fargo [6] as they discussed the health of the property preservation industry, the steps that the industry should be taking to combat urban blight, and the latest legislation and cases on the preservation of vacant and abandoned properties.
“Fannie Mae remains committed on partnering with servicers and vendors on improving the inspection and preservation processes of vacant properties as well as eradicating community blight that could be potentially caused by vacant properties,” Williamson said. “NPPC is a great event to discuss and resolve some of these challenges and opportunities. Similar to what’s happening across the entire mortgage industry, we need to continue to push the use of technology tools such as data digitization and mobile technology to tackle this objective more efficiently and effectively.”
Williamson and Sharga, along with Ivery Himes, Director, Office of Single-Family Asset Management, HUD [7] then gave the audience an update on the government programs that are helping and impacting the housing and mortgage industry. Some of the topics included the standardization of servicing and preservation guidelines between HUD and the GSEs and the impediments to implementing these regulations.
The conversation then flowed into disaster recovery and the lessons learned by the industry and how they have improved the disaster response this year. Delgado ended the session by asking the panel if they could define the single greatest challenge that faces the housing industry today.