NCST serves as an advocate for neighborhood stabilization and blight remediation, and as such, we release articles and also share in press stories with our buyers and sellers to help call attention to their efforts, and to bring more understanding to the continued need for revitalizing our nation’s most vulnerable communities.
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A tax break to hasten gentrification? Housing market’s Opportunity Zones may miss their target
In mid-November, a Chicago-based private equity firm with an eye on underserved neighborhoods raised $105 million from 425 investors — in just 17 hours. Around the same time and about a hundred miles away, Milwaukee officials were meeting to discuss what they hope is an influx of…
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Land Banks Preparing Strategic Plans to Expand Scope and Community Impact
As the newest member of the NCST team, I’m excited to share some early observations. Over the past four months, I have spent the majority of my time becoming familiar with the community development networks throughout Ohio and Michigan. And in nearly every community conversation there is…
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Support Middle Neighborhoods with a Federal Investment in Home Rehab
Neither rich nor poor. Neither gentrifying nor in steep decline. “Middle neighborhoods” have recently captured the attention of community development circles (and are the subject of ongoing coverage in Next City). These neighborhoods, broadly defined as areas with households earning 80 to 120 percent of the area…
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Innovative Partnership in Chicago Creates New Loan Product to Create and Preserve Affordable Housing Units
Welcome to fall! As you might have noticed, we often use this space to highlight interesting work in which our buyers are involved, and we’re pleased to share news about a great partnership in Chicago established to help preserve more affordable housing. The Joint Center for Housing…
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Fannie, Freddie will stop backing single-family rentals
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that help lubricate the U.S. mortgage market, will stop backing loans for single-family investment homes in a nod to the growing controversies surrounding that marketplace. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, regulator of Fannie FNMA, -2.63% and Freddie FMCC, -2.70%…
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NCST Community Buyers Play Critical Role in Stabilizing Middle Neighborhoods
Since our founding in 2008, NCST has aimed to stabilize neighborhoods by getting distressed properties into the hands of mission-driven, on the ground partners that rehab these properties and who then return them to low- to moderate-income families via affordable homeownership or rental opportunities. Recently, a lot…
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The Dark Side of Single-Family Rental
After the foreclosure crisis, global equity firms snapped up thousands of single-family homes to rent out. This massive shift in the market has not been good for aspiring homeowners, tenants, or neighborhoods. In 2011 single-family home prices hit a two-decade low, and mortgage rates were as low…
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Zombie houses in Brookhaven renovated, sold as affordable homes
A dozen former zombie homes in Brookhaven Town are finding new lives as affordable houses for families who previously had never owned the places where they lived. The nonprofit Suffolk County Landbank, formed five years ago by county officials to buy and resell derelict properties, expects to spend…
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Revisiting the National Mortgage Settlement at the State Level
It’s been 10 years since the housing crisis hit this country and the world’s economy. National Public Radio is currently taking a look back at different aspects of the financial melt-down on its MarketWatch program, including the National Mortgage Settlement, the largest consumer financial protection settlement in…
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Community Buyers Using Public Sources of Funds Remain Supported by NCST
Public sources of funds used to acquire and rehab vacant and blighted homes have been a mainstay for NCST community buyers, particularly municipalities and non-profit housing developers. Federal housing programs such as the HOME Investment Partnership program, Community Development Block Grants, and of course the Neighborhood Stabilization…
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