Treasury announces push to lower housing costs

The Treasury Department announced initiatives to increase the supply of housing.

Details:

• A new program administered by the Community Development Financial Institution Fund will provide an additional $100 million over the next three years to support the financing of affordable housing.

• An effort to provide greater interest rate predictability to state and local housing finance agencies borrowing from the Federal Financing Bank to support new housing development.

• A call to action for the Federal Home Loan Banks to increase their spending on housing programs.

• A new how-to guide to support state and local governments in using recovery funds provided by Treasury to construct housing.

• An update to the Capital Magnet Fund to provide greater flexibility to CDFIs and nonprofits that finance affordable housing.

More: Treasury also released a blog post that said increasing housing supply is essential to addressing the long-term trend of rising housing costs.