HEAD OF LENNAR MORTGAGE: U.S. housing market is on the VERGE OF A VISCIOUS CYCLE, which is NOT GOOD for America!
HEAD OF LENNAR MORTGAGE: U.S. housing market is on the VERGE OF A VISCIOUS CYCLE, which is NOT GOOD for America!
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‘We’re on the verge of a vicious cycle, in which fewer and fewer people can afford the American dream of homeownership. That’s not good for America.’
That was Laura Escobar, the president of Lennar Mortgage speaking Monday at the annual Mortgage Bankers Association conference in Denver, Colo.
Escobar, who was recently named chair of the MBA, told the trade group’s 275,000 members that she would work to bring the issue of housing affordability to the forefront for policy makers and government officials and would campaign to loosen regulations in mortgage lending and home building.
Lennar Mortgage is the financing arm of Lennar, the nation’s second-largest home builder. Escobar joined the company in 2002.
See also: The biggest U.S. homebuilder misses on earnings as it says buyers staying on sidelines
‘Enough is enough’
Escobar’s comments echoed much of what the housing industry, and particularly builders, have been saying for the past few years — that an inventory crunch is pushing up home prices.
Housing costs have surged, with prices hitting new highs and the rate on a 30-year mortgage averaging close to 7%.
Escobar said that the U.S. is short 1.5 million homes and that the country’s housing stock isn’t keeping pace with the number of households.
“Decades of over-regulation have made it increasingly difficult to build new homes and rehabilitate old ones,” Escobar said, according to prepared remarks. “For many small builders, it’s now close to impossible. And as fewer new homes come on the market, the cost of other homes rises even faster.”
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