Reports and Studies

The following report provides an overview of a Home Value Protection (HVP) product to evaluate the practicality of making such a program more widely available and provide background for anyone considering such a plan. The paper is based largely on the Home Value Protection product established in Syracuse New York in 2002, and a number of the authors of this paper participated in the establishment of the Syracuse Home Value Protection program.

The paper contains four sections:

1: Investor Outreach
This section provides background information about the Syracuse program, the current and potential participants and what roles they might play, a review of a few of the ways such a program could be implemented, and links to various media coverage.

2: Index Research
The Syracuse program measured changes in house values by a real estate index for the area (rather than individual house sale price), and this section evaluates a number of different index methods using four markets historical data to see how well the different indexes would have performed with a HVP product (had it been available).

3: Capital Requirements & Pricing
This section provides a model for estimating the pricing requirements and capital required for a program across multiple markets. While not exhaustive, this approach will provide a useful reference and starting point for anyone evaluating investment in such a program.

4: Regulatory Environment
This section provides information on some of the regulatory entities across the markets used in the analysis. Due to the variations in the way a HVP product could be implemented, regulations could apply in a variety of ways and this section can only offer a starting point for potential investors or participants. Complete listing and access info »

This guide combines material from various sources in order to provide the best summary of homebuyer education programs. The enclosed samples range from job descriptions for home ownership counselors to Homebuyers Club schedules. Complete listing and access info »

Insurance companies have a vested interest in communities and homes that are safe and secure. Through their successful but underutilized housing rehabilitation expertise, NeighborWorks organizations seek to improve the quality of older, unsafe and/or vacant and abandoned properties in the communities they serve. Complete listing and access info »

The benefits of owning versus renting a home have been extolled by policy makers for many years, and there is substantial recent research to support those views. Yet the research supporting these claims largely has been conducted on general samples of homeowners. Low- and moderate-income homeowners may have a different experience due to difficulties in keeping up with housing-related payments or a difference in the quality of the homes being purchased. A major objective of this report is to assess the impacts of home ownership on a sample of low- and moderate-income homebuyers.

We also know very little about the experience of lower-income homebuyers after they purchase their homes. To what extent do low-income homebuyers experience unexpected costs associated with maintenance or repairs? What proportion of low-income buyers take out home equity loans and what do they use the funds for? What proportion of low-income homebuyers default on their loans? What do buyers feel are the greatest advantages and challenges to owning a home? Answers to these questions may provide insight into how prospective lower-income homebuyers can be better prepared for home ownership.

The research described in this report involved a sample of persons who graduated from home-ownership classes taught by eight NeighborWorks organizations that participated in the Neighborhood Reinvestment Homeownership Pilot program. Neighborhood Reinvestment has encouraged its affiliated NeighborWorks organizations to offer services designed to increase access to home ownership among low- and moderate-income families. Building on Neighborhood Reinvestment's Campaign for Home Ownership, the Homeownership Pilot program was designed to assist low- and moderate-income households to obtain home ownership by providing them with counseling, down-payment assistance and affordable loans.

This report is the third of three reports on the implementation, outcomes and impacts of the Homeownership Pilot program. The first report, entitled An Assessment of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Homeownership Pilot Program: A Preliminary Report (2000), covered the early implementation of the Pilot. The second report, entitled Supporting the American Dream of Home Ownership: An Assessment of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Homeownership Pilot Program (2002), covers the outcomes of the Homeownership Pilot, including the number of persons counseled and new homebuyers assisted. This final report was designed to:

1. Assess the proportion of customers trained by NeighborWorks organizations who go on to buy homes, as well as the factors that predict who among those graduating from the homeownership training go on to buy homes and who do not.

2. Assess both the social and financial impacts of buying a home on the program participants.

3. Assess the postpurchase experience of low-income homebuyers.

4. Assess the loan repayment experience of a sample of the affordable loans held by Neighborhood Housing Services of America (NHSA).

5. Assess changes in the Pilot program target areas before, during and after the Pilot program was in effect. Complete listing and access info »

In June 2004, NeighborWorks America issued a request for proposals for its first Manufactured Housing Design Innovation Pilot Program. The goal of the pilot program was to support development using manufactured or modular housing to demonstrate that both housing types can be part of a viable affordable housing strategy. A jury reviewed proposals from 12 organizations and selected six finalists to share the $250,000 grant. In selecting the finalists, the jury considered the feasibility of the project and its ability to be a national model, and the strength and development experience of the organization, including prior experience with manufactured or modular housing.

The six funded organizations were:

• Affordable Housing Resources in Nashville, Tennessee;
• HomeSight in Seattle, Washington;
• Homewise in Santa Fe, New Mexico;
• Interfaith Housing Delaware in Wilmington, Delaware;
• Laconia Area Community Land Trust in partnership with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund in Laconia, New Hampshire; and
• Rural Ulster Preservation Company in Kingston, New York.

The six projects cover different geographies and different approaches to development. This report presents the following case studies in an effort to inform interested organizations and individuals about the project specifics, as well as the challenges and lessons learned. Complete listing and access info »

As housing markets across the country continue to struggle to bounce back, ever-increasing instances of foreclosures remain a daunting problem. While the situation in highly affected urban areas has received much attention, there has been a dearth and inconsistency in research on corresponding rural areas. While the forces commonly linked to the urban crisis such as widespread predatory lending, ballooned housing prices and excessive real estate speculation have affected some rural areas as well, overall the rural crisis is a unique, complex crisis all of its own. As the following analysis illustrates through the use of publicly available data, a survey and interviews, a clear and worsening problem exists in America's rural communities, and it is the goal of this paper to outline the workings of this rural crisis as much as the limited data availability allows. Further, the author makes the case that the crisis has exacerbated already difficult conditions in rural areas, and, while claims of a recovery begin to arise, in rural America, hopes of a quick recovery remain slim. Complete listing and access info »

Learning Centers are central facilities, frequently located with an apartment community, where programs are available that support residents in attaining their American dreams - children succeeding in school, adults increasing their earning power, families holding savings accounts and moving into homeownership.




This report presents the results of the first two years of the Multifamily Initiative's effort to study the question, "What impact do housing-based learning centers have on property operations, low-income households and their communities?" The long-term goals of this initiative effort are to set benchmarks for outcomes, standardize effective programs, document and optimize the impact of learning centers on property performance, and to build collaborative funding sources.




Thanks to the participation of the nine founding housing organizations who have made learning centers part of their operations, and to consultants Fred Alsup and Janet Maccubbin, this report presents a detailed picture of the initial work to define and improve the impact of learning centers, share best practices and build efficient, replicable standards. It also provides information on the characteristics of learning centers, such as types of programs, capacity, areas of success and challenges.

Complete listing and access info »

The report explores the challenges of rural development and the ways in which practitioners, in particular, might address these challenges through strategic policy development and implementation. Complete listing and access info »

This paper inventories strategies for maintaining affordable housing toward perpetuity in hot markets in an increasing number of locales. Long-term affordable housing strategies answer the call to make affordable housing resources last longer as federal funding for affordable housing diminishes, rental affordability programs expire, and owners prematurely buy their way out of affordable mortgages. The need is especially acute in hot-market cities, like New York City, that have seen large development programs end without any adequate replacements. The strategies span rental and homeownership delivery mechanisms, subsidy and equity sharing, cooperatives and community governance, land regulation, extending existing termed programs, and amassing funds to sustain affordable housing, with a focus on producing long-term affordable units through inclusionary zoning. Interviews with national policymakers and experienced affordable and mixed-income housing developers bring new light to the success of these mechanisms.

This study finds that neither relying on inclusionary zoning nor extending affordable housing programs should be considered a replacement for federal subsidies. Innovating new programs means setting numbers of units produced against longevity, affordability and occupants' capacity to generate equity. Recommendations are given first in terms of challenges, tensions, trade-offs and new questions that these strategies create, and then to specific actors in the policymaking arena. Nonprofits should focus on monitoring long-term affordability and accountability. Municipalities and local governments should better regulate sources and uses of housing trust funds, focus on helping fund first-time homebuyers, consider input from local developers, consider long-term inclusionary zoning regulation, and monitor productivity and long-term regulation. Policymakers and researchers should consider why potential homebuyers have selected riskier subprime mortgage products over more secure equitysharing products and might want to better advertise equity-sharing options. Finally, New York City should expand its voluntary inclusionary program to more neighborhoods and better track its production and longevity. Complete listing and access info »

A handbook for nonprofits going through or anticipating executive transitions. Complete listing and access info »