Tag Archives: Sustainability

Accessory Dwelling Units, known as ADUs, are small, independent units that are inside of, attached to, or detached from a primary residence, and a new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies revealed they may have the potential to address housing-related challenges like affordability, equity, and environmental issues.

As more and more buyers look for sustainable options, homes have to meet the demand. What are the options available for buyers looking to "go green?"

Neighborhoods in Cleveland topped a recent ranking for the greatest number of eco-friendly homes. Click through to learn which other neighborhoods joined America’s North Coast on this list.

With the affordable housing inventory at a low, Fannie Mae hopes to address some key problems in the industry with a panel of experts. See what the GSE's plan is to strengthen the affordable housing market.

An increase in prices itself does not signal a bubble. An unsustainable increase, not supported by other data, however, would.

Conditions in the housing sector may have finally improved enough to bring life back to the securitization market.

According to a report from Fitch, home prices have risen at their greatest pace since 2005, but in certain markets, technical factors--including low mortgage rates, tight supply of existing for-sale homes, and weak levels of new home construction--rather than "fundamentals" acted as the driving force behind the price gains over the past few quarters. In order to determine sustainability, Fitch conducted an analysis using its Sustainable Home Price (SHP) model.

With gaffes and down polls embroiling his campaign, Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney unveiled a housing white paper on Friday to reposition his message and salvage his campaign. The document, titled ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£Securing the American Dream and the Future of Housing,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø prescribes several conservative policy must-haves. For starters, there├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós much ado about the return of private capital to the secondary mortgage market and devolution for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Oh, and jobs. Twelve million to be exact.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is suing the global investment firm UBS Securities for allegedly falsely representing the level of risk associated with mortgage-backed securities the firm sold to two federal credit unions. According to NCUA officials, the defaults and losses that resulted directly contributed to the collapse of both credit unions. The suit, filed in a federal district court in Kansas, alleges 10 counts of securities laws violations by UBS at both the federal and state level.

On Friday, after years of bills from lawmakers to reform Fannie and Freddie, the Treasury Department unveiled a plan to finally ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£wind down├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø the mortgage giants. According to a release, the Treasury Department will end a past ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£circular├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø arrangement with Fannie and Freddie that allowed the companies to repay the agency with the very funds it received in the first place. The new agreement requires that Fannie and Freddie divert any new quarterly profits back to Treasury in order to repay taxpayers for their losses.