Nareb President Calls For ‘optimistic Underwriting’ To Expand Homeownership

Ashley Thomas III has assumed the presidency of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) — the nation’s oldest and largest Black real estate organization — with an agenda focused on expanding homeownership access.

Thomas, a housing policy and wealth equity strategist with more than 25 years of experience across real estate, lending and community development, is leading NAREB’s national strategy “Closing the Gap: Advocacy, Affordability and Access.”

He is also CEO and founder of LA Top Broker and managing broker of First Security Investment Co.

This week, Thomas is in Washington, D.C., attending the National Urban League’s Legislative Policy Conference, engaging with policymakers and industry leaders on advancing equitable housing policy.

In an exclusive interview with HousingWire, Thomas said his administration is prioritizing homeownership access by examining outdated credit models and underwriting guidelines.

“[We want to see how] these barriers are impacting any first-time homebuyers, and them actually getting into homeownership,” he said. “Policy-wise, we’ve been focusing on that. Two days ago, I spent the whole day on (Capitol Hill), talking with congressional leaders on some things that we’re working on, specifically around policy and HUD and FHA.”

NAREB is launching an eight-city affordable homeownership bus tour as part of its grassroots outreach.

The organization is also mobilizing 100-plus local boards through its Realtist Restore Day — supporting families through home restoration and stabilization.

Community Property Fairness Initiative

Thomas highlighted a specific policy push NAREB is making with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) called the Community Property Fairness Initiative.

The initiative addresses what Thomas describes as an underwriting imbalance affecting married couples in nine states who apply for FHA mortgages.

“If you’re applying for an FHA mortgage, I believe 83% of first-time homebuyers go through FHA, and if you’re married, you have to use your spouse’s income in the approval process, he said. “So, a husband and wife are married — only the husband is getting a loan. The wife’s debt goes into that calculation of the application, not her income.

“She’s not going on the loan, but her debt is being calculated, which makes it very challenging for someone to qualify.”

States affected are California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Washington, Louisiana and Idaho, Thomas said.  

He added that government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not require this treatment of spousal debt.

“We look at that as an imbalance of underwriting,” Thomas said. “We are challenging HUD. For some time, we’ve been having conversations, but now we’re actually bringing it out publicly.”

Assessing federal housing legislation

On recent federal efforts to address housing affordability, Thomas expressed support for inventory-focused measures while noting shortcomings.

“I think the bills that are being passed are taking great strides to combat our inventory shortages,” Thomas said. “But the other issue is access, and I think that’s not a part of the conversation as much as it should be.”

He pointed specifically to the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.

“There’s nothing in the [Act] that speaks to interest rates, nothing that’s directly impacting the consumer at a point of application or qualification,” Thomas said. “This is merely about inventory, which is an issue, and we need to tackle it. So, we’re excited that at least we’re tackling something. But we’re looking forward to increasing the conversation around access.”

Thomas also noted a lack of federal policy focus on rising insurance costs and property taxes.

“Even if the interest rates come down, for example, in Louisiana, there’s studies where the insurance payment is greater than the mortgage payment,” he said. “Those are new realities that we’re facing. And I think that we missed an opportunity to address that in these bills.”

Rethinking mortgage products

Thomas said the industry needs more innovation in product offerings to address affordability challenges given that income has not kept pace with housing costs and inflation.

“There’s an opportunity for us to look at products to see how we can better align in terms of creating some gain towards affordability,” he said. “So, we have to be more innovative in terms of our product offering to allow people to get into homeownership.”

On the concept of a 50-year mortgage, Thomas said he and NAREB are not in support of that measure.

However, he suggested exploring how loans are amortized, noting that interest is front-loaded in mortgages, making it challenging for homeowners to build early equity.

Thomas also identified aging housing stock as an under addressed issue affecting inventory and affordability.

“I would have liked to see more in the bill surrounding rehab loans,” he said. “In every city, you have properties that were built in the early 1900s that need repair, and it’s very hard for consumers to access, as a purchase product, rehab loans without taking higher rates or increased fees.

“The investors are doing a lot of the rehab work across America, but I think the everyday consumer would rather buy a home that they can fix up at a more affordable price.”

Addressing appraisal bias, industry regulation

Thomas supports federalizing regulation of appraisals, which are currently regulated at the state level.

“It makes it very challenging to bring true reform to the industry,” Thomas said of decentralized oversight. “[It could be] like what we’ve done with mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders. They now have the National Mortgage Licensing System. It could allow consumers to say, ‘Hey, my appraisal didn’t come in correctly. I want to escalate this without it being cost burdensome.’”

Thomas emphasized the importance of sustained advocacy.

“Conversations continue far after [appraisal bias] lost its fire on social media,” he said. “We need to keep pushing because there hasn’t been anything that’s been implemented to combat it. So, it’s still a conversation, but we need to actually bring some regulation around it.”

Maintaining the homeownership message

Thomas said industry leaders must continue emphasizing homeownership’s importance and the remaining gaps in homeownership equity.

“Somewhere along the line, the American dream became more about profit than people, and so we need to go back to optimistic underwriting, as opposed to underwriting that has a sense of, ‘Prove to me why you deserve a home.’”

Thomas said the tone in lending has shifted since the foreclosure crisis — with an emphasis on risk avoidance — but argued that market stability now supports easier loan access.

He encouraged prospective buyers not to be deterred by current market conditions.

“We want to continue to encourage people that it’s a great time to buy property,” he said. “I would not shy away from it, even with all of the depressing news and the rates and everything that’s going on.”

The eight-city bus tour will focus on affordability and highlight opportunities in specific markets.

“There are cities that have opportunities, and so we want to continue to go to those cities and push homeownership,” Thomas said. “And so that’s our main message, and our activities center around that.”