Real estate data and technology firm CoreLogic will help power the housing finance research conducted by Washington, D.C.-based think tank The Urban Institute through a strategic alliance announced today.
The Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization, has recently formed the Housing Finance Policy Center, which is designed to provide evidence-based data and analysis to educate policymakers and the public on how the housing finance system affects households, communities and the broader economy.
The alliance comes as federal policymakers are debating what to do about government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, tax reform that would affect real estate-related deductions such as the mortgage interest deduction, and how to bring private capital back into the secondary mortgage market.
“We are very pleased to have a strategic alliance with CoreLogic. They are an incredible provider of data; this data is critical to doing independent, broad-based public policy research in the housing finance area. It’s our hope that the alliance will continue to grow from here,” said Laurie Goodman, director for Urban’s Housing Finance Policy Center, in a statement.
CoreLogic will provide the center with data sets it will use to produce data-driven reports, policy analyses and white papers. The companies will also co-sponsor ongoing Washington, D.C.-based discussion seminars to encourage debate of pertinent housing policy questions, CoreLogic said.
To kick off the alliance, CoreLogic and The Urban Institute co-hosted a daylong event in the nation’s capital last month titled “Data, Demand and Demographics: A Symposium on Housing Finance.” The symposium included prominent speakers such as Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy; Ed Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University; and Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist.
Among the topics discussed were: the demographics of the homeowner and rental populations of the future; how to increase liquidity and transparency in the mortgage-backed-securities markets; the future needs for rental housing financing; and how to best improve credit availability, CoreLogic said.
“We believe this is a real win-win relationship,” said Faith Schwartz, senior vice president of CoreLogic’s government solutions group, in a statement.
“The Urban Institute is a prominent and well-respected research organization. We couldn’t be happier to work with them. This event has given our strategic alliance some great momentum. When we look at the quality of speakers, panelists and the turnout, it’s easy to get excited about what this alliance can bring to the table in terms of housing policy insight.”
