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Advocates Ponder Affordable Housing Under Obama

Industry experts weigh in on what the new administration may have in store for this vital--and often short-shifted--sector of the market.

By Sule Aygoren Carranza | Updated on December 15, 2008

NEW YORK CITY-Immediately preceding the New York Housing Conference and National Housing Conference Annual Awards Luncheon held here last week, a group of affordable housing experts got together for a roundtable discussion on the state of the industry after the presidential transition. The briefing, titled “A Fresh Start? Affordable Housing in the Obama Administration–a National Perspective,” featured presentations by Conrad Egan, president and CEO of the Washington, DC-based National Housing Conference, and Sharon Price, NHC’s director of policy.

When looking at economic cycles, Egan noted the acronym “VUL.” As he explained it, normal downturn would be more like the letter “V,” where conditions deteriorate, hit a bottom, and then improve. “A more lengthy, agonizing and debilitating recession acts more like a ‘U,’ ” he said, where fundamentals worsen, remain at a low for some time and then pick up, such as it did in the 1980s. The current cycle is more like the letter “ L,” where conditions decline and remain poor for the foreseeable future.

“This would appear to be a situation where the downturn is worse than any of us expected,” he related. “No one knows the extent of the problems. Therefore, survival strategies are important.”

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