WASHINGTON—Ahead of a hearing this week on housing affordability, NAFCU and CUNA wrote to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance to tout credit unions’ work to provide comparatively lower rates on mortgage loans, especially amid “challenging times.”
However, the associations told Congress the lower rates offered by credit unions only relate to one aspect of affordability, stating that “government policy can impact affordability as well.”
“We have urged the Federal Housing Financing Agency (FHFA) to examine their policies to improve the affordability of mortgages, such as discounting, or eliminating, guarantee fees for credit unions selling loans to government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) for certain borrowers and the high-quality, low-risk mortgages that credit unions originate,” they added.
‘More Opportunities Available’
NAFCU and CUNA also suggested here are “more opportunities available to the GSEs to further close the racial homeownership gap and ensure that government-sponsored programs are benefitting the individuals and communities that most need them.”
“A dialogue on housing affordability also requires looking at what can be done to increase the housing supply and access to it,” concluded the associations. “Credit unions support legislation and policy decisions that would increase the supply of safe, affordable, and reasonably resilient housing, including efforts to make it easier for homebuilders and homebuyers to use manufactured housing to reduce the housing shortage.”
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