Research

NeighborWorks America's Housing and Financial Capability Survey shows that most people believe homeownership has benefits but also feel that homeownership is out of reach for them because of their financial situation. Over several years of collecting national data on housing affordability trends and financial preparedness, NeighborWorks has found that the disparity in homeownership between communities of color and white communities continues to grow and the majority of Americans still need help in understanding the homebuying process. 

As part of our efforts to build the capacity of nonprofits to use shared equity and cooperative housing strategies to preserve long-term affordable housing, build wealth for low-income families and promote neighborhood stabilization, we produced this guide to serve as a starting point for organizations and community leaders. We offer a set of guiding questions and considerations that should be noted when exploring the benefits and tradeoffs of pursuing shared equity housing models. 

Homelessness comes at a great cost to individual and community health, worsening health outcomes that lead to higher rates of chronic illness.

The goal of eviction prevention is continued housing stability. 

Between September 2018 and August 2019, NeighborWorks brought together five organizations to explore approaches to challenges in rural areas with the overarching goal of field building, working collectively to tease out best practices, improve outcomes and present learnings to inform efforts in the NeighborWorks network and the community development and rural fields.

NeighborWorks America developed the Financial Capability Learning Lab to provide six NeighborWorks organizations with the opportunity to test and launch new strategies to address critical marketplace needs and help move the field forward.

We developed the NeighborWorks America Financial Capability for Renters Pilot to learn how best to effectively provide financial capability services to the renters living in affordable multifamily rental housing owned by NeighborWorks organizations. 

There is no question that eviction is bad news for renters. Forced moves put individuals and families at risk in so many ways: They have a more difficult time being accepted as tenants elsewhere; they frequently are disconnected from social-support networks, health care providers, employment and schools; and the stress takes a psychological toll of its own. For property owners and managers, turnover means additional expense for legal procedures, recruitment of new tenants and apartment make-ready. But in the nonprofit, mission-oriented world, it's not just about money; it's also about addressing the underlying challenges that drive nonpayment of rent to begin with. The question is what (resident) services are most successful as well as cost efficient. This is the issue this study set out to explore.

Now housing developers must change their approach to marketing and selling in order to expect good results.NeighborWorks America's Stable Communities Initiative created this guide to:

1. Assist you in developing a marketing and sales plan for your homes
2. Help you train and manage your development and sales team
3. Share templates, examples and resources to aid quick implementation of your plan

Neil Mayer and Associates, together with Experian, conducted a study on the effectiveness of NeighborWorks pre-purchase homeownership counseling and education. Using information from about 75,000 loans originated between October 2007 and September 2009, analyzed the impact of pre-purchase counseling and education, provided by NeighborWorks' network, on the performance of counseled borrowers' mortgages. Overall, the study found clients receiving pre-purchase counseling and education from NeighborWorks organizations are one-third less likely to become 90+ days delinquent over the two years after receiving their loan than are borrowers who do not receive pre-purchase counseling from NeighborWorks organizations.