Mortgage Market Archives - Americans for Financial Reform

Letters to the Regulators: AFR and Public Citizen Letter to the New York State Department of Financial Services Proposal to Evaluate Nonbank Mortgage Lenders

Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund submitted a comment to the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) on its proposal to evaluate nonbank mortgage lenders in New York based on their performance in meeting the credit needs of the communities where they operate, including needs related to increasing climate risks on housing

News Release: Trump Administration Reverses Lawsuit Against Egregiously Racist Lender

The Trump administration’s decision to reverse an already settled lawsuit against a Chicago mortgage lender over a pattern of failing to serve Black neighborhoods and egregiously racist conduct is an unprecedented attack on the nation’s laws against discrimination in financial services, according to a new analysis from Americans for Financial Reform.

Blog: Trump CFPB Reverses Townstone Discriminatory Lending Settlement

In an astounding first, the Trump-appointed leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has requested that a federal court reverse a racial discrimination settlement that the agency had previously reached with Townstone Financial, a Chicago-based mortgage lender.

News Release: Housing Agency’s Disregard for Growing Climate Risk Will Only Deepen the Housing Affordability Crisis

Tuesday afternoon, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte sent out a flurry of orders via tweets containing photographs of documents, including rescission of its Advisory Bulletin on Climate-Related Risk Management (Climate Risk AB) and waiver of Equitable Housing Finance Plan (EHFP) requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises).

In the News: Consumer Bureau Seeks to Undo Settlement and Repay Mortgage Lender

Christine Chen Zinner, a senior lawyer at Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive advocacy group, called the consumer bureau’s attempt to overturn the settlement “bananacakes.” The appellate panel’s unanimous decision that the fair-lending law applied was a clear signal that the case had merit, she said.

News Release: Americans for Financial Reform on Trump’s DOGE Deregulatory Initiative

This executive order is an unconstitutional power-grab that delegates supreme authority over congressionally-mandated, court-sanctioned statutes and regulatory safeguards to unelected, unnominated, unconfirmed bureaucrats.

News Release: California Hands $500M Insurance Bailout Bill to Families & Homeowners

The California State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara approved a $1 billion bailout of the state’s FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) plan to help cover over 3,400 claims it has received due to the devastating Los Angeles fires. The FAIR plan provides insurance to consumers who were dropped by their private insurers.

News Release: Pension Funds Should Use Retirement Savings to Build Housing

Pension funds that provide a secure retirement for workers around the country have the potential to help alleviate the nation’s housing crisis by investing directly in efforts to ease the terrible shortage of homes, according to a new report, Investing for the Common Good: How Workers’ Pensions Can Help Solve the Housing Crisis.

Blog: Invitation Homes Invites You to Enjoy Rent Hikes, Fee Gouging, Disrepair, and Evictions

Last month’s settlement agreement with Invitation Homes confirms what their tenants have been telling us: our country’s largest landlord of single family homes has a consistent track record of ripping off its tenants.

In The News: Senators take aim at big private equity landlords as rents soar (NBC News)

As landlords, private equity firms raise rents, impose new fees, skimp on property maintenance and pursue tenants more aggressively in court, the Americans for Financial Reform research noted. “The cumulative effect is a massive transfer of wealth from mainly low- and middle-income renters, who can’t afford the onerous barriers to homeownership, to some of the wealthiest men in America,” it said.