The Affordable Housing Bulletin
November 5, 2004

In this issue:

In Delaware
DHC Annual Membership Meeting ~ December 3
Affordable Housing Economic Impact Study To Be Released ~ 11/15
State First-Time Homebuyers Funds

Elsewhere
Families Bearing More Economic Risk With Small Gains


DHC Annual Membership Meeting ~ December 3
The Annual Meeting of the membership of the Delaware Housing Coalition will take place on Friday, December 3, from 10:00 am to Noon, in the conference room of NCALL Research, 363 Saulsbury Road, Dover, and will include annual business meeting, reports to membership, and election of 2005 board members and officers.

To attend: Please notify us by calling Ken Smith (302/678-2286, x101) or by email: dhc@housingforall.org


Affordable Housing Economic Impact Study To Be Released ~ November 15
Investing to Meet Delaware's Affordable Housing Needs: An Economic Impact Analysis, is an exciting new study detailing the positive economic impact for Delaware created by public investment in housing. Commissioned by the Delaware Housing Coalition, the study was conducted by Dr. William Latham of the University of Delawre Department of Economics and was sponsored by Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delware, JPMorgan Chase, and MBNA America Bank, N.A.

Please plan to join us on Monday, November 15, 2004 at 9:00 am at the Goodstay Center, Wilmington Campus, of the University of Delaware. RSVP: Marlena Melhunek, 302/678-2286 x202 or mkm@housingforall.org


State First-Time Homebuyers Funds
Governor Ruth Ann Minner recently announced that $100 million worth of below-market interest rate mortgages will be made available before the end of the year to first-time homebuyers with low and moderate incomes through Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA).

DSHA expects to serve nearly 1,000 families with this series, which is more than any previous single bond issue. This will bring the total number of families assisted with low-interest mortgages to nearly 2,200 under the current administration.

For more information on affordable homeownership programs, please visit the DSHA website at www2.state.de.us/dsha

Families Bearing More Economic Risk with Smaller Gains
("If America Is Richer, Why Are Its Families So Much Less Secure?," LA Times, October 10, 2004)

In the past quarter century, families have had to bear a far greater share of economic risk as private sector and public protections --- stable jobs, employer-paid health coverage, guaranteed pensions, short unemployment spells, unemployment benefits, and job training programs --- have been scaled back or vanished altogether. "Working Americans are on a financial tightrope," said Yale University political scientist Jacob Hacker. Nowhere is the risk shift of the last quarter century more apparent than in the widening swings in working families' incomes. Researchers found the peak was in the mid-1990s, when income volatility was roughly five times greater than in the early 1970s. Since 2000, incomes have fallen about 1 percent a year, according to recently released census figures. "We haven't reduced economic risks" at all, said Harvard economist Martin L. Weitzman. "We've simply redistributed them from the economy as a whole to individual households."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-riskshift10oct10,1,3999173,print.story

The source of statistics and how they were analyzed:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-riskbox3oct10,1,3775830.story
[FRAC News Digest, 10/15/04]