Media Center « Press Releases »

Press Releases

Contact:

Neil Cotiaux, FHLBank of Pittsburgh: 412-288-2851; cell: 412-335-9488

FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANKS HELP REALTORS IN GOOD TIMES AND BAD:
PITTSBURGH BANK PRESIDENT DELIVERS MESSAGE OF SUPPORT AT CONVENTION; $55 MILLION IN DOWN PAYMENT, CLOSING COST ASSISTANCE ANNOUNCED

NEW ORLEANS, LA, November 10, 2006 – America’s REALTORS® are facing challenges as a result of the current downturn in the housing market, but the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) System will continue to support homebuyers by providing reliable, readily accessible funding for home purchases, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2006 annual convention was told today.

Speaking on behalf of the twelve-Bank FHLBank System, John R. Price, president and chief executive officer of FHLBank Pittsburgh, said that as the first government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) created by Congress to focus on housing, the FHLBank System remains committed to supporting homeownership during all economic cycles.

With a combined balance sheet of approximately $1 trillion, the FHLBank System is “one of the largest borrowers in the international capital markets” and enjoys “the best rates in the capital markets” due to its triple-A rating. As a result of this financial strength, Price said, FHLBanks are uniquely positioned to provide constant, low-cost liquidity to approximately 8,000 member financial institutions across the country so they can get money into the hands of homebuyers.

“We’re the anti-credit crunch GSE – a reliable, readily accessible funding partner whose first priority is assuring an adequate source of funding for housing, now and in the future,” Price told an audience at the NAR’s Regulatory Issues Forum during its national convention in New Orleans. Approximately $638 billion in advances, or low-cost loans, had been made to community lenders by the end of the second quarter of 2006, Price said, helping to get Americans into their own homes. Moreover, as part of the FHLBank System’s congressional mandate in support of affordable housing, more than $2 billion in grants for approximately 450,000 units of new or rehabilitated housing have been awarded since 1990. These grants continue to benefit the homeless, low- and very-low-income, disabled, frail elderly and other individuals, Price said, “making a profound difference in the lives of your neighbors.”

Price used the occasion of the NAR convention to announce that approximately $55 million in grants for down payment and closing costs (the vast majority for first-time homebuyers) has been approved by FHLBanks so far this year – the latest example of how FHLBanks continue to support the housing market in good times and bad. “We expect that many of these homebuyers will eventually trade up and come back to you for repeat business,” he told the REALTORS.

The Federal Home Loan Bank System was created by Congress in 1932 as the first GSE to support the housing market. The twelve FHLBanks are private cooperatives serving owner-member financial institutions primarily through advances, or low-cost loans that support mortgage lending and other forms of community and economic development. Each FHLBank is privately capitalized and receives no taxpayer funding.

Mr. Price is the first FHLBank president to speak at an NAR convention. He was one of three panelists participating in the NAR’s Regulatory Issues Forum. Other participants were Richard Syron, CEO of Freddie Mac, and Kent Colton of Harvard University’s Joint Center on Housing Studies.