FHA Commissioner Cassidy Discusses Deregulation, Affordability
(From left: Christine Chandler and Frank Cassidy, by Anneliese Mahoney)
SAN DIEGO–Frank Cassidy, federal housing commissioner and assistant secretary for housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, outlined some of his goals on the main stage at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Commercial/Multifamily Finance Convention and Expo Feb. 9. Affordability and deregulation are key on that list.
“Housing is a major issue in the country,” he said. “I feel like every time I turn the news on, the focus is on affordability, the focus is on mortgages, the focus is on interest rates. So we are, every day, working with our partners, the lenders, the stakeholders, the White House, Secretary [Scott] Turner, to figure out what the strategy is and ultimately how we can make housing more affordable.”
Cassidy pointed to work the administration has been doing to support the supply side of housing. He cited the FHA 221(d)(4) program. “It’s one of the only financing programs available in the market that actually brings new supply online,” he said. “So, we are hyper focused on what we can do to tweak that program, to make it more efficient, to make it work better for the borrowers that ultimately rely on it.”
“We are looking at rolling back a lot of the red tape that was put in place over the years, and to just get back to the mission, right? Let’s support the private sector,” he said. “Let’s support the developers. Let’s support the lenders so that we can get more deals done and ultimately create more housing.”
He stated that an overarching goal is to run FHA “more like a business” and streamline and deregulate when apt. He cited the multifamily mortgage insurance premiums, which the agency recalibrated to 25 basis points earlier this year. “That’s an example of a change that will have significant downwind effect,” he said, noting that it will save significant amounts of money.
He also highlighted the new “express lane” for HUD Section 232/223(f) applications. “It’s those types of efficiencies that we are trying to bring across all of FHA, where we’re not necessarily taking on more risk, but we’re making the process more efficient.”
In general, “it’s an exciting time right now at FHA and HUD. I think we have a once in really a lifetime opportunity to revisit a lot of these programs and figure out how to make them more efficient,” he said. “We’re meeting with our lenders, our developers. We have people coming in all the time, and really, everything’s on the table.”
