Mortgage Bankers and Mayors Join Forces to Increase Investment in Housing and Economic Development

The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) and the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA) announced today a joint partnership to increase investment in America’s urban and rural communities.

“This initiative exemplifies how mayors everywhere are partnering with the private sector to strengthen local economies and expand housing opportunities,” said USCM Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran at the USCM Winter Conference in Washington, DC.

“This initiative gives mortgage bankers the opportunity to join with mayors across the country to further our mission of extending access to affordable housing and building healthy communities,” said MBA President Christopher J. Summer, President and CEO of CrossLand Mortgage Corp.

The two organizations have created a Housing and Community Development Council to implement the partnership. The Council will develop a common agenda to stimulate private investment for increased housing and employment opportunities. Over the next several months, the Council will meet to develop a common legislative agenda and identify innovative housing and economic development investment opportunities.

The Conference of Mayors is working to provide more housing for families in the inner cities of the nation through a recent initiative called Building Homes In America’s Cities. This initiative, which is a partnership of the Conference of Mayors with the National Association of Home Builders and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, has as its goal to build one million new homes over the next 10 years. The partnership with the Mortgage Bankers Association strengthens further the Conference of Mayors’ commitment to build a strong urban America.

MBA’s commitment to this initiative is a direct result of its first National Homeownership Summit, held last November at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Summit participants, representing business, government, academia, and community groups, identified demographics, the expansion of the low income tax credit, linkage of housing finance with community and urban revitalization efforts, technology’s ever-increasing role in the real estate finance industry, and the promotion of consumer education, among others, as issues in need of further research.