Entries by Edward Pinto

BankThink: Mortgage deduction helps housing lobby, but not homeowner

The battle lines are drawn between those seeking to protect the mortgage interest deduction (MID) and a legislative effort to greatly reduce the use of the MID. Hopefully, this is a battle that taxpayers will win over the housing lobby — the loudest supporter of keeping the deduction intact. The housing lobby’s effectiveness is measured […]

Realtors and Homebuilders Put Profits Over Middle Class

By Peter J. Wallison & Edward J. Pinto Two powerful lobbying groups that advertise themselves as helping Americans buy homes have announced that they will oppose the Republican tax plan. Their reason? Because it will lower housing costs. Seldom have any denizens of “the Swamp” shown their true colors quite so flagrantly. For years, the National Association of Realtors and the National […]

Index finds Rallying Home Purchase Market in 2016

Today, AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk (ICHR) and First American Financial Corporation release the AEI/First American National Housing Market Index (NHMI), the first index ever to analyze sales transaction volume for the entire home purchase market. The national housing market continued its rally in the fourth quarter of 2016. On an annualized basis, 5,810,000 […]

It’s Time to Put the Market Back in Housing Finance

Today’s government-centric housing finance system is an “economics free zone” indifferent to supply and demand. Composed of an alphabet soup of agencies, this system has fostered a massive liberalization of mortgage terms and provided countless trillions of dollars in lending in up and down markets. At the same time, other government polices constrain supply. As […]

Affordable multifamily housing loans need rethinking: The ‘Blight Preventer’ Loan

Ten to twenty years after their original development many affordable multifamily properties face two common shortcomings: an inability to fulfill their long-term affordability commitments without additional public subsidies and insufficient funds for proper maintenance and avoidance of blight.  The propensity for blight, leaves public funders with bad choices: accept blight or throw good money after […]

Five Housing Market Predictions for 2016

My predictions for 2016: The National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), particularly for First-Time Buyers (FTBs), will continue its upward trend that is now nearly 3 years old. Demand pressure resulting from continuing moderate economic growth combined with increasing leverage and limited housing supply growth will extend the seller’s market that is now over 3 years […]

Serious flaws uncovered in Federal Reserve’s Bank Lending Practices

New analysis by Tobias Peter, research analyst at AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk (ICHR), uncovered serious flaws with respect to the Federal Reserve’s quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices when compared to ICHR’s much more comprehensive and timely National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI). Earlier this week the Fed released the […]

Loosening of Lending Standards Harms Low Income and Minority Americans

The Spring home buying season continues to show strength, buoyed by strong first-time buyer volume and share. Historically low mortgage rates, an improving labor market, and loose credit standards, combined with a 32-month-long seller’s market for existing homes, continue to drive up home prices faster than income. The continued loosening of lending standards during a […]

REPORT: Housing Market at Risk

April’s results continue to show that first-time buyer volume and share remain strong, showing little variance beyond seasonal trends.  However, the first-time buyer Mortgage Risk Index hit a series high of 15.28 percent in April, moving deeper into the high risk loan category. This growing leverage puts the housing market at risk given interest rates are […]

Film Suprime 2.0: Doubling Down on Disaster

The central role housing policy played in causing the financial crisis has been gaining greater and greater acceptance, but much more remains to be done as new efforts are underway to double down on disaster. Earlier this year, my colleague Peter Wallison came out with his new book Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World’s […]