Farm and rural mortgages

The latest plans include details on promoting housing development in underserved areas and increasing secondary market access to rural institutions.

The push comes amid what one expert highlighted as lax funding efforts for two Department of Housing and Urban Development grant programs.

The agency now sees applications for mortgage-recovery advances approaching 3,000 per month.

In a new report, the Government Accountability Office issued a list of recommendations for the department’s Native American Direct Loan program, which has benefited less than a tenth of one percent of eligible U.S. borrowers in 10 years.

But both fell short under the Duty to Serve goals in rural housing.

The legislation takes aim at third-party bank service vendors, the backlog of FHA appraisals, rural housing assistance and other issues where there is broad agreement.

Seeking to expand financial services access, tribal officials and some firms want regulators to award Community Reinvestment Act credit to any bank that funds projects in Native American communities.

The current debate around changes to the Community Reinvestment Act should include discussions about how the law can be used to better support low-income communities in remote areas.

Across rural America, the government shutdown has eliminated one of the best options for low-to-middle income homebuyers, a zero down payment mortgage from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The banking industry has long been critical of the government-sponsored enterprise, but the system could provide valuable banking services to large swaths of the country currently lacking access to them.