[Adam] Hi, I’m Adam DeSanctis. This is the Mortgage Minute, the latest news from the Mortgage Bankers Association. There was big news coming out of HUD last week, and it was a big win for our industry, with HUD announcing significant updates to FHA’s 203k Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance Program. The key changes, for which MBA advocated, included increasing the allowable total rehab costs under the limited 203k program from $35,000 to $75,000 with an annual review to ensure market relevance. Additionally, the rehab period was extended to 12 months for the standard 203k and nine months for the limited 203k.  Furthermore, the 203k consultant fee can now be financed in the total mortgage amount for the limited 203k, and allowable fees for consultants have been increased to encourage participation. MBA commends FHA for including these recommendations that we highlighted in a comment letter back in January. Unlocking the FHA 203K renovation program is a key MBA priority, given its potential to address housing supply shortages by facilitating the rehab of outdated or dilapidated housing stock that would otherwise lack marketability. We will continue to engage with FHA on improvements to the 203K programs. That’s it for this week. Thank you for listening.

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As a strategic public affairs and communications executive with nearly two decades of experience,  Adam has deep expertise in strategy, management, and media relations.

He is widely considered to be an expert in a variety of communications, including advocacy, brand, executive, crisis, grassroots, and social media.

In his career, he has been the MBA spokesperson on a wide variety of real estate research and advocacy-related issues, promoted MBA research and advocacy efforts to financial, political, and trade industry media and on MBA’s social media channels, and secured media opportunities for MBA leadership on key real estate trends and issues, generated media coverage for MBA’s research and data on mortgage applications, credit availability, homebuilder applications, mortgage forbearance/delinquencies, commercial real estate originations, and forecasts, and other industry analysis, developed key strategic initiatives for MBA’s organizational public affairs plan, media relations and member communications support for mPower, MBA’s Opens Doors Foundation and MBA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.