we match renters with investors & landlords to fund home down payments...
…in exchange for a share in equity & home appreciation.Why
rent is a trap.it is really hard to put together a down payment for a home.
it is really hard to name-your-own investment returns.
home ownership is nearly unattainable for
disadvantaged, minority & young people just starting out.disadvantaged + minority + young people
represent a large underserved market ready to be modernized.technology + financial innovation is a means to home ownership...
...which is a means to generational wealth.
Begin here…
What
FriendsCouch
Renter:
for people seeking to mount a down payment for a home, FriendsCouch is a marketplace that provides an easy way to amass down payment help. unlike seeking gifts or squirreling away small dollar amounts, FriendsCouch puts your entire rent payment into savings toward that down payment.
Investor, Landlord, Host:
for those seeking name-your-own returns on their investment capital or property income, FriendsCouch is a marketplace that provides an easy way to secure double-digit rates. unlike typical low-yield investments or market-rate rents, FriendsCouch enables you to negotiate & lock-in your rate of return.
why - to align the interests of the investor with the occupying homeowner
how - shared equity investment (SEI) down payment
Read articles … Watch videos … Listen to pods …
Pinned -- Don’t Reform Housing Finance. Reinvent It.
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania - Richard A. Morris - November 21, 2013
Read - “If we were to design a housing finance system to best address the needs of the country today and in the future, what would it look like?”
Reducing Homeownership Risk: “Shared Equity Financing…”
Pinned -- National Home Price Appreciation (HPA) Index — August 2024
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) - Tobias Peter & Edward J. Pinto - September 25, 2024
Read - Key takeaways:
National YoY HPA for August 2024 was 4.6%, down from 4.9% a month ago and up from 4.4% a year ago.
Historically, HPA in the low price tier has outpaced HPA in the upper price tiers.
Compared to a year ago, YoY HPA increased faster for the low and high price tiers. The low price tier is up 6.7% YoY, due to low months’ supply (2.4 months).
Capital Gazette - Wes Moore & Jake Day - January 9, 2024
Read - “…Our constituents know that the cost of living is expensive, rents are too high and home prices are up. Most Marylanders in rental properties put a third of their monthly paycheck toward rent...”
“…What’s even harder to measure is the opportunity cost of spending so much on housing instead of saving for a down payment… “
Why the Pro-Housing ‘Yimby’ Movement Is Wading Into the Election - Wall Street Journal - September 15, 2024
Read - Harris’s proposal to build millions more homes draws fans among ‘Yes in My Backyard’ activists
Kamala Harris unveils populist policy agenda … with $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers - Washington Post - August 16, 2024
Read - $25,000 in federal down-payment assistance to more than 1 million first-time home buyers. (Biden had previously proposed a more limited measure only for first-generation home buyers.)
UPDATE: D.C. meets goal to add 36,000 housing units ahead of schedule - Washington Post - July 29, 2024
Read - Among the 36,000-plus new homes added to the housing market, Bowser set a goal to make 12,000 of them affordable for households earning below 80 percent of the area median income, or $121,700 for a family of four based on the median income of about $152,000.
36,000 By August: DC Will Likely Hit Its Housing Production Target By Next Month - Washington, DC - Urban Turf - July 8, 2024
Read - DC is on pace to meet Mayor Muriel Bowser's goal of producing 36,000 new housing units by next month.
Of the units produced so far, approximately 9,771 are affordable, 81% of the goal for affordable housing production. Under the current framework, any units that cost no more than 30 percent of household income for households earning up to 80 percent of median family income count toward "affordable housing”.
Click - Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) - DASHBOARD
2024 Terwilliger Center Summit on Housing Supply Solutions - Washington, DC - Bipartisan Policy Center - June 11, 2024
Watch - On June 11, BPC’s Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy brought together experts and thought leaders from government, business, philanthropy, and more to explore meaningful, bipartisan solutions to the acute shortage of affordable homes.
1,700 affordable housing units to be added along Wisconsin Avenue - Washington, DC - the Eagle (American University) - Mackenzie Konjoyan - May 3, 2024
Read - New units to meet Ward 3 racial equity goals … plans to add up to 9,500 new housing units along the Wisconsin Avenue corridor west of Rock Creek Park. 1,700 of those units will be dedicated as affordable…
A First Look At The New Plans For Adams Morgan's SunTrust Plaza - Washington DC - Urban Turf - April 23, 2024
Read - Seven months after Truist bank donated the former SunTrust branch and adjacent plaza in Adams Morgan to Jubilee Housing, the nonprofit is unveiling plans for an all-affordable housing development at the 18th Street and Columbia Road site.
Biden Administration on the Housing Crisis (& Why Biden's so obsessed with housing policy) - Axios - Emily Peck - March 11, 2024
Read - There's a big focus on housing in the 2025 budget President Biden just sent Congress.
4 Financial Resources for D.C. Homebuyers - Axios - Brianna Crane - February 17, 2024
Read - Down payment assistance programs are one tool helping to close the racial homeownership gap.
What's happening: There are a number of programs in the District aimed to help low-income folks get into a house, or hold onto real estate.
There’s A Growing Push To Develop Social Housing In D.C. What Is It? - DCist.com - Morgan Baskin - January 17, 2024
Read - Taking stock of the housing crisis in D.C. and across the country, it’s not difficult to see that something has to change: As housing and living costs rise, more people than ever are spending at least half of their income on rent.
At once foreign and familiar, “social housing” is an umbrella term for non-market, publicly-owned housing that is accessible to people across the income spectrum.
Howard University renovates affordable-housing ‘jewel’ with Amazon money - Washington Post - Marissa J. Lang - Dec 1, 2023
Read - Howard University administrators, Amazon representatives and D.C. officials celebrated Friday the renovation of 80 apartments in a hulking brick building on the edge of campus, an effort they said aids the District’s push for affordable housing in a city with limited options for low-income families.
Inside the building, studios and one- and two-bedroom units will be rented out to low-income families who qualify at 60 percent of the median family income for D.C. or below. For a family of four, that means an annual income of about $85,400, according to limits set by the federal government.
Amazon launches plan to help ‘underserved’ D.C. area families buy homes - Washington Post - Teo Armus - September 13, 2023
Read - Amazon will spend millions to help low and middle-income families buy their first homes in the D.C. region, the company announced Wednesday.
The undertaking is part of a $40 million initiative that executives said is meant to help boost homeownership among “underserved groups”.
NYC's new Airbnb rules are bigger than the Big Apple - Axios - Alex Fitzpatrick - September 5, 2023
Read - Why it matters: The change — which Airbnb has called a "de facto ban" — is one of the most significant moves a major city has made in recent years to curtail short-term rentals.
Depending on what happens in New York, other cities could follow suit.
Airbnb Hosting Isn’t What It Used to Be - Bloomberg - Natalie Lung & Jesse Levine - August 10, 2023
Read - Last summer, Joan Robertson and her husband, Mark, finally realized their years long goal of buying a second home.…To help pay off the mortgage, they planned to operate the home as a short-term rental.
Ten months in, things haven’t panned out as they’d hoped.
Renting In And Around D.C. Is Hellacious Right Now. Just Ask Your Neighbors - DCist.com - Morgan Baskin - July 24, 2023
Read - For those fortunate enough to have avoided suffering the indignity of looking for an apartment in and around Washington, D.C. …
The Case Against Homeownership - The Nation - Jane Chung - June 5, 2023
Read - Instead of perpetuating the Ponzi scheme of private property for some, we should be demanding economic security for all…
More single women than men buy homes. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. - Washington Post - Courtney Vinopal - New York, NY - April 26, 2023
Read - From competing against couples to dealing with biased real estate agents and contractors, these are the tales of navigating the housing market alone…
Homebuyers are putting less money down now, as bidding wars fade - Axios - Emily Peck - Washington, DC - March22, 2023
Read - Homebuyers aren't putting as much money down as they were at the height of the housing frenzy…
D.C.'s office-to-residential pivot is happening - Axios - Cuneyt Dil & Paige Hopkins - Washington, DC - March 6, 2023
Read - D.C.’s office-to-residential pivot is underway with nearly 2,500 new apartments in the works…
D.C.'s Black homeownership rates have stagnated - Axios - Paige Hopkins - Washington, DC - January 12, 2023
Read - The D.C. region has roughly double the rate of Black residents than the U.S. as a whole, but lagging Black homeownership indicates persistent systemic barriers…
An Historic Walk Through Housing Discrimination in the U.S. - Habitat for Humanity 2023
Read - In America, Black homeownership sits at around 43% while White homeownership is at 72%. The answer to why lies in more than 50 years of housing discrimination…
Nonprofit acquires DC luxury apartments for affordable housing - WTOP News - Washington DC - December 28, 2022
Read - The nonprofit Washington Housing Conservancy, whose mission is to preserve affordable housing options for D.C. area residents, has acquired a 212-unit apartment building in Northeast D.C...
Rent: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - HBO, Jun 20, 2022
Watch - John Oliver discusses why rent has become increasingly unaffordable, what we can do to combat a system that is stacked against tenants...
3 reasons it's getting harder for renters to buy - Axios, July 15, 2022
Read - Three factors are keeping people stuck in the rent trap (Hint: rising rents, rising rates, rising prices)...
Why It’s So Hard to Buy a House - Axios - May 5, 2022
Read - The proportion of homes being sold for cash — deals where the buyer isn't taking out a mortgage — hit a new high of 28% in March…
But for the overwhelming majority of Americans, it's also impossible.
Wealth gap impacts D.C.'s Black homebuyers - Axios - January 19, 2022
Read - D.C.’s Black mortgage applicants are denied at almost three times the rate of White applicants.
Housing Discrimination: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - HBO - July 25, 2021
Watch - John Oliver breaks down the long history of housing discrimination in the U.S., the damage it’s done and crucially, what we can do about it.
HUD Secretary on Black Home Ownership Decline - Axios on HBO - June 20, 2021
Watch - “For people of color, especially Black people, home ownership is wealth. It is not only wealth to us, but it is generational wealth.”
- Marsha Fudge – Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
In D.C., Housing Should be a Human Right - Washington Post - May 19, 2021
Read - “We have the funding and progressive ideals as well as the extreme wealth inequality and racial segregation that, when combined, create the perfect laboratory for progressive action on measures that could eradicate race-based poverty through universal housing.”
- George A. Jones – CEO Bread for the City, Washington, DC
The Stark Racial Gap in Home Ownership - Axios - February 17, 2021
Read - “The homeownership rate for Black families is nearly 30 percentage points lower than that for White families, according to a new data analysis by the National Association of Realtors, which examined trends between racial groups from 2009 to 2019.”
Innovative Solutions for the Housing Crisis - Stanford Social Innovation Review - December 1, 2020
Read -
“# 3 - Creative Finance to Allow More People to Qualify for a Mortgage and Buy a Home, and to Provide More Affordable Rental Housing”
“# 4 - Assist Renters to Improve Their Financial Position and Credit Scores to Help Them Achieve Homeownership”
Real Estate - Ownership, Asset, Economy - a16z Podcast - January 13, 2017
Listen - “What doesn’t exist in residential real estate is this ability to buy and sell effectively shares in your own home…”
“The really radical thing here is there’s alignment with the homeowner…alignment between the investor and the homeowner where, when the homeowner does well, when their home goes up in value, that’s when the investor does well.
And that kind of alignment doesn’t exist for any other kind of products out there for consumers today.”
- Eddie Lim, CEO of Point