national housing group sees hope in the wake of midterm elections

Will the new 116th Congress tackle the often endlessly complicated issue of affordable housing?

That is the hope of the National Multifamily Housing Council, which has issued a press release arguing that growth in the country’s multifamily sector is currently burdened with “the overarching issues of housing affordability and regulatory reform.”

The Washington-based group adds: “We look forward to working with this Congress to identify new ways to tackle the nation’s housing affordability crisis.”

An “existing patchwork of overly complex, costly, duplicative and often counter-productive regulations at all levels of government” the NMHC contends, continues to pose “one of the biggest threats to delivering much-needed housing units across the country.”

The group has particularly pledged to work with Congress and the Trump Administration for the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program, as well as a “housing finance system that ensures the continuation of a federal guarantee and preserves the ability of GSEs to provide the necessary capital financing to the apartment industry.”

Those GSEs are government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that provide capital for the development of the nation’s housing market.

Doug Bibby, the president of NMHC, has previously noted that current forecasts say the nation will have a shortage of more than 4.6 million apartments by the year 2030. 

Bibby has suggested that two ways to increase the housing stock is through greater local government involvement and increased public-private partnerships.

By Garry Boulard

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