Government Role Still to be Determined

On August 17, 2010, MHI attended the “Conference on the Future of Housing Finance” sponsored by the Departments of the Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Washington, D.C. This high level meeting was structured to engage public and private sector housing stakeholders and receive input on the future of the housing finance industry. Participants included senior level executives from top mortgage lenders, investors, academics and public officials. Congressional policy makers and leading housing association executives were also among the roughly 70 or so invitees participating in this highly anticipated event, including the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI).

Following opening remarks by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, panelists talked about the government’s role in providing stability and financial support to housing finance. Among the topics addressed were what should change and what should be preserved in the current system. Manufactured housing was mentioned during the panel discussions as being an important part of GSEs duty to serve the public’s access to affordable housing.

After the panel discussions, participants broke into smaller focus groups of about a dozen attendees for 90 minutes in order to provide input and feedback on a variety of housing finance topics. The focus group MHI participated in was moderated by Michael Barr, a leading candidate to head-up the newly created Bureau of Consumer Finance Protection.

This conference was an important part of the discussion as the Administration and Congress weigh options with the restructuring of the system. MHI and the manufactured housing industry will continue to be at the center of the debate on this extremely important issue.

For a more detailed press release on the conference and panel discussions, please click here.

A full presentation and transcript of the general sessions can be viewed on the C-SPAN website at http://www.c-span.org/ and search for “HUD finance conference.”