What Part of Government Regulates Housing?

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is responsible for managing the housing industry in the United States. HUD offers mortgage insurance through the FHA, regulates the real estate industry and upholds Title VIII of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits housing discrimination.

HUD

In the United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is responsible for overseeing the housing industry. A cabinet-level secretary runs HUD and reports directly to the president. Within HUD, the Office of Housing manages a number of public programs that contribute to the health of the housing market.

Goals and Divisions

The Office of Housing conducts all its business to achieve several public-service goals: to build and maintain prospering communities; to encourage home ownership, rental properties, and hospitals and other health care facilities; and to help maintain a stable credit market in difficult times.

The office has three divisions: single family housing, which oversees mortgage insurance for purchases and for reverse mortgages; multifamily housing, which manages mortgage insurance for building, rehabbing and refinancing multifamily housing and health care operations; and regulatory operations, which govern buying and selling in the real estate industry.

FHA

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insures mortgages made through FHA-approved lenders. Having issued mortgage insurance for more than 34 million properties since its founding in 1934, the FHA is the world's biggest mortgage insurer. It receives no taxpayer monies, paying for itself from the proceeds of its mortgage insurance sales.

The Fair Housing Act

The Office of Housing enforces Title VIII of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, which President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law. The act outlawed housing discrimination based on race, religion, natural origin or gender. Later the act was amended to outlaw discrimination based on physical disability or family status.
This act leveled the playing field for many people who previously had been denied the chance to buy housing in some areas. Every year since the Civil Rights Act was passed, the Office of Housing has hosted a public celebration on April 11, the anniversary of the day Johnson signed it.

State Offices

HUD has offices in every state in the union, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, so people can have easier access to government information and services.