I have a great conversation with Nicholas Retsinas, Director, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. He and his staff just released The State of the Nation’s Housing 2010, a must read overview of the challenges facing the US housing market.
Here are other resources published by JCHS.
I have a conversation with Mark Willis, a Resident Research Fellow at the Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy at New York University.
He is the co-author of Improving U.S. Housing Finance through Reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Assessing the Options along with Ingrid Gould Ellen and John Napier Tye. This white paper was completed as part of the What Works Collaborative, a foundation-supported partnership that conducts timely research and analysis to help federal, state and local housing policy-makers frame and implement evidence-based housing and urban policy agendas.
The paper is essential reading as we go through a period of financial reform. The report is described as a timely assessment of alternative proposals for the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ranging from nationalization to dissolution. The paper explains the role Fannie and Freddie have played, explores the goals a healthy secondary market for both single- and multifamily housing should serve, and develops a framework to help understand and evaluate the various proposals for reform.
Last month I spoke to and interviewed Tony Pistilli, a certified real estate appraiser on the Minnesota Department of Commerce Real Estate Appraiser Advisory Board. He’s got a possible solution to the current appraiser – appraisal management company conflict. Its all about conforming to RESPA and preventing banks from shifting the burden to appraisers to pay for bank compliance.
Its the first logical solution I’ve heard. The banks are essentially making the appraiser pay for their RESPA compliance by taking it out of the appraiser’s fee, often 50% of the stated appraisal fee. The consumer is being mislead by the appraisal fee stated by the lender at time of mortgage application.
He’s been spreading the word through all the channels/usual suspects in the blogosphere. Here’s my original post, including his article:
[HVCC and AMCs Violate RESPA?] Here’s a possible solution
His views seemed to have been picked up by the Appraisal Institute, the largest appraisal trade organization in the US, in their letter to HUD looking for clarification on RESPA and the disclosure of fees paid by consumers. Here’s the FAQ on the new RESPA rule.
In this podcast, I have a conversation with Lakshman Achuthan, the co-founder and managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI), an independent organization focused on business cycle analysis and forecasting. ECRI maintains business cycle chronologies for 20 countries around the world other than the U.S.
Lakshman is the managing editor of ECRI’s forecasting publications and regularly participates in a wide range of public economic discussions. ECRI’s U.S. Weekly Leading Index is widely followed.
He is a member of Time magazine’s board of economists and the New York City Economic Advisory Panel (where I met him) and serves as trustee on a number of non-profit boards. He is the co-author of Beating the Business Cycle: How to Predict and Profit from Turning Points in the Economy published by Doubleday.
In this podcast, I have a conversation with Larry Sicular, Principal of Lawrence Sicular & Associates and Editor & Publisher of The Stamford Review, a real estate and public policy journal.
Larry has taken a different route in bringing real estate and other key topics into the fold. His journal is contrarian to current convention by presenting high quality long form articles which also provide possible solutions to the issues discussed.
My guest is Nicholas Retsinas, Director, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. I’ve followed his work for many years and I am grateful he agreed to be interviewed for this podcast.
The interview focuses on the report recently released by the Joint Center for Housing Studies that is full of great information called:
The State of the Nation’s Housing
Here are other resources published by JCHS.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Vicki Been, who among other positions is a Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and Director of the Furman Center.
Great discussion on foreclosures and homeownership.
She and her team do important housing policy work at the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.
They also produce a must-read publication called State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods.
She was incredibly patient with me before the interview while I struggled with a software glitch, and to top it off, my microphone decided to sound scratchy midway during the interview (her mic was fine). Despite this, she’s agreed come back in the future. Phew!
