The Housing Finance Policy Center (HFPC) was created in the wake of the Great Recession to supply regulators and policymakers with evidence-based solutions to challenges in the housing finance system. We provide timely, impartial data and analysis that shows how the housing finance system affects households, communities, and the broader economy.

Throughout 2024, HFPC produced high-quality research in areas that greatly impacted the housing finance system, such as housing supply and affordability, sustainability, and equitable access to homeownership. Our experts in housing finance, markets and policy curated relevant, accessible data that drove meaningful conversation and supported evidence-based solutions to tackling the system’s biggest challenges. This included building interactive project pages that contain resources on how to address America’s housing crisis, sustain homeownership, and enhance access to credit. 

A Road Map to Address America’s Housing Crisis

We are in the midst of a national housing crisis with the costs of housing rapidly rising and the largest number of Americans on record experiencing homelessness. Our roadmap project page explains how we got to this crisis and provides 5 groups of data-driven solutions to improve housing outcomes.

1. Policy makers can tackle the root of the crisis by expanding the supply of rental and for-sale housing.
2. At the same time, we need to unlock and preserve existing housing by improving access to rehabilitation and repairs.
3. High upfront costs and rapidly rising housing costs are keeping many would-be first-time homebuyers out of the market. Tools like down-payment assistance, adjusting underwriting, and better defining what it means to be a first-time homebuyer can open the door to homeownership for the first time for many Americans.
4. As rents have risen dramatically since the Covid-19 pandemic, many low-to moderate-income renters are facing reduced savings, spending cutbacks, and pressure to move. Direct supports can empower and protect renters.
5. Housing instability and homelessness have increased in recent years. Investment in proven housing-first strategies is critical to reducing and eliminating homelessness.

Sustaining Homeownership

Homeownership is the most common way for families in the US to build wealth and pass it on to future generations. However, homeowners lose these benefits if they lose their home.

The sustaining homeownership project page houses a collection of Housing Finance Policy Center research with solutions on how to make homeownership more sustainable. The center has a large existing body of work on loss mitigation, the tools servicers use to keep people in their home after they are no longer able to make their regular payments. HFPC has written about the loss mitigation options for specific agencies, like VA and FHA, and about specific tools like forbearance and streamlining refinances. Recent work quantifies how much the changes in the loss mitigation waterfall during COVID, which have since been made permanent, improve the outcomes for borrowers as well as those that bear the credit risk.

 Racial equity is a critical aspect of sustaining homeownership as a history of structural racism in the US undermines the ability of homeowners of color to achieve, maintain and experience the benefits of homeownership. We analyze several intersections of structural racism and housing, including home quality and repair, climate risk and recessionary shocks.

The Special Purpose Credit Program Data Toolkit

This toolkit helps lenders design Special Purpose Credit Programs to enhance access to credit for households of color in their communities. The market and disparity analyses for 50 MSAs and the nation break down how wealth and access to credit are distributed across the MSA. Lenders who want to take the data a step further can download the interactive excel for their area. These dynamic and powerful tools help users find out which populations within their city might benefit the most from a special Purpose Credit program and what kinds of services would best improve their target clients’ mortgage readiness.

The Housing Finance Policy Center in 2025

In 2025, HFPC will remain steadfast in its commitment to shaping a more accessible and sustainable housing finance system for all households and communities. As demographic, economic, environmental, technological, and industry conditions rapidly change the housing finance system, our experts will continue to provide data-driven analysis that supports an effective housing finance system for all.