AmeriCatalyst

04/13/2024

This is the cover of The Economist yesterday. Subtitle: “Global warming is coming for your home. Who will pay the damage? A $25 trillion hit” Love the timing. The event is in 6 days.

03/04/2024

AmeriCatalyst CEO, Toni Moss recently sat down with Ted Tozer, President & CEO at to discuss the upcoming GOING TO EXTREMES event. Here are some highlights of what Ted had to say.

AmeriCatalyst: Is the housing finance ecosystem ready for the effects of extreme weather caused by climate change?

TOZER: No. People are only now beginning to really even acknowledge the impact of the homeowner insurance premium issues. That’s my frustration. People put their head in the sand, saying it’s not going to happen now, or they’ll say it’s too big for me to deal with… it’s gotten so politicized that no-one takes it seriously. The industry has got to realize it’s coming, whether it’s man-made or not, it’s here. We don’t care how it got here, it’s here and it’s not going to go away. That’s why I encouraged Toni to do what she’s doing, because I just think we need to get people really talking about this issue and not putting their heads in the sand.

AmeriCatalyst: Have you been involved in efforts to try to get the industry to confront it?

TOZER: My whole issue is, it’s got to be, all stakeholders get together. This is too big for anybody. You don’t want to leave it to Washington, because my experience in Washington is, they oversimplify stuff. And you get all kinds of unintended consequences. So you’ve got to make sure you’re part of the discussion and that’s where I think it’s really important for people to acknowledge, it may be too big for them, but they need to make themselves heard on what they’re seeing, what’s happening, where do they see repercussions, so all the stakeholders walk away with as good a situation as possible.

AmeriCatalyst: So when you are at the AmeriCatalyst conference in April, is that what you want people to learn from you? Is that the takeaway that you want to impart to other participants?

TOZER: Yeah, what I want to impart to people is this is probably the biggest challenge housing finance has probably ever dealt with and because of that we all got to get together and figure out how we’re going to deal with it.

I feel like I'm almost to some degree in the same position again as where I was in 2006 except this is something that’s not going to be as easy to fix. Because we can't fix the climate. We can fix lending - you write down some loans, inject capital, whatever you do, but I don't know how you deal with climate change which is permanent. You can’t turn that around and that’s what I think makes this so, so difficult to deal with.

You can’t wait until it’s a complete disaster…if we’d dealt with housing policy in 2006, then we wouldn't have had the degree of the housing crisis we did in 2009-2010. I know it scares people to face up to reality but I’m really worried we’re losing time. We should have been talking about this 6-7 years ago to give us time to prepare. I think we’re at the point now where we’re almost too far. Everybody’s going to pay for this climate change stuff. I think that’s what’s really important. We’re all in this thing together.

For more information, or to request an invitation to GOING TO EXTREMES 2024, please visit https://americatalyst.com/

FIRST SESSION STARTS IN __ DAYS : __ HOURS : __ MINUTES LEARN MORE > Creating sustainable solutions A future of extreme weather events that increase in frequency, severity and unpredictability is only just beginning, with profound implications throughout the housing ecosphere and nearly $12 trillion...

02/28/2024

"You read a lot of articles and every now and then, a particular writer catches your attention and you think, "Holy cow, this person really gets it - and they can write!" This is an excellent article by Ryan Kingsley of National Mortgage Professional about the unpriced risk of climate change throughout the mortgage industry.

I created a session about this imminent threat called, "AND DAMNED IF WE DON'T: The Implications of Pricing for Climate Risk in Housing Finance" at AmeriCatalyst's GOING TO EXTREMES Climate, Housing and Finance Leadership Summit, at the Ga***rd National Harbor on April 18 and 19.

We are not currently pricing for climate risk in house prices; G-Fees; MSRs, bond ratings or subordination levels. Out of all of the 14 very provocative sessions at the event, in my opinion, this session is the most important - and potentially explosive of all. Once the risk can be measured, it will be priced...

Musical chairs, anyone?



If you're interested in participating, please go to www.americatalyst.com. It is invitation-only, but for the most part, all you need to do is convince me that you're passionate about the industry and can add value to the collaboration and interactivity of the event!"

- Toni Moss, CEO, AmeriCatalyst

Cliff Rossi wakes at sunrise most mornings to the clamor of crab boats heading down Fishing Creek, a tributary off the Little Choptank River south of Cambridge, Maryland. His house sits roughly 100 feet from the shore. When he and his wife bought their home in Dorchester County more than two decades...

02/28/2024

"There are champions for the disenfranchised, the underprivileged and the underserved, and then there's Lisa Rice. She's up there with Ida Wells, Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Angela Davis and Ketanji Brown Jackson in my list of heroes. Lisa's fight to deconstruct systemic discrimination and reconstruct fair and equitable access to housing is one of the most important issues of our lifetime, and she's got one heck of a team behind her at the .

Sorry for the plug (it is LinkedIn, after all) but by the way, Lisa happens to be speaking at AmeriCatalyst's GOiNG TO EXTREMES Climate, Housing and Finance Leadership Summit on April 18 and 19 (how fortuitous is that?)

Lisa is featured on a panel about the consumer side of homeownership and tenancy, as well as climate justice. In addition to the crisis of fair housing and affordable housing, we now have the crisis of the unaffordable costs of ongoing homeownership itself due to increased property taxes, and climate change-induced increases in utilities and insurance. Not to spoil the plot or anything, but now you know why the session is titled THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD. It's time to act."

- Toni Moss, CEO, AmeriCatalyst

Beyond financial solutions, Rice calls for comprehensive reforms and government intervention to bridge the racial gap in housing equality

02/28/2024

AmeriCatalyst’s : The Climate, Housing and Finance Leadership Summit is about the direct operational impact of extreme weather and increasing natural disasters affecting the entire housing ecosystem. We’re planning and preparing for the industry-wide implications that will only worsen moving forward. Here is a small portion of our 56 speakers to date.

Join AmeriCatalyst, and the featured speakers below, at the Ga***rd National Harbor on April 18 and 19. There is so much that we CAN do, but we need to start talking about it NOW.

GARY BEASLEY, Co-Founder and CEO, ROOFSTOCK

JOHN E. BELL III, Executive Director, Loan Guaranty Service | LGY, VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION

DAVID BURT, Founder and CEO, DELTATERRA CAPITAL

MARK CALABRIA, Senior Advisor, CATO INSTITUTE and Former Director, FHFA

PETE CARROLL, Executive, Head of Public Policy & Industry Relations, CORELOGIC

QUENTIN CUMMINGS, Climate Analytics Technical Assistance Lead, FEMA | FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

LARRY CORDELL, Retired former Senior Vice President, RADAR, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF PHILADELPHIA

ANDREW DAVIDSON, President, ANDREW DAVIDSON & CO.

DOUG DUNCAN, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, FANNIE MAE

MICHAEL FRATANTONI, Chief Economist, Senior Vice President, Research and Industry Technology, MBA | MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION

GEORGE GALLAGHER, Senior Leader - Principal: ESG, Climate Risk, Natural Hazard and Spatial Solutions, CORELOGIC

JULIA GORDON, Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT | HUD

HIMANSHU GUPTA, Founder and CEO, CLIMATE AI

DR. KATHARINE HAYHOE, CEO, ATMOS RESEARCH, Chief Scientist, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

MICHAEL HARPER, Director of Business Development, ICON

DAVE JONES, Insurance Commissioner, Emeritus and Director, Climate Risk Initiative Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC BERKELEY SCHOOL OF LAW

TIM JUDGE, Chief Climate Officer, FANNIE MAE

DR. SARAH KAPNICK, Chief Scientist, NOAA | NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

SAM KHATER, Chief Economist, FREDDIE MAC

STAN MIDDLEMAN, Chairman and CEO, FREEDOM MORTGAGE

DIANA OLICK, Senior Climate and Real Estate Correspondent, CNBC

LISA RICE, President and CEO, NATIONAL FAIR HOUSING ALLIANCE | NFHA

CLIFF ROSSI, Professor of the Practice & Executive-in-Residence, THE
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND ROBERT H. SMITH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

RICK SHARGA, Founder and CEO, CJ PATRICK COMPANY

DR. ERICA THOMPSON, Senior Policy Fellow in Ethics of Modelling and Simulation, LSE DATA SCIENCE INSTITUTE and author, Escape from Model Land

TED TOZER, Non-Resident Fellow, THE URBAN INSTITUTE and Board Member, PENNYMAC

ANJU VAJJA, Acting Deputy Director for the Division of Research and Statistics, FHFA | FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

SUSAN WACHTER, Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate, and Professor of Finance, THE WHARTON SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

DON WHITE, Chief Risk Officer, PENNYMAC

02/26/2024

"In order to get a comprehensive overview of the threats and opportunities posed by climate change to the housing market, Toni Moss is planning a two-day conference in April in Washington, D.C. featuring speakers from the worlds of , , , , , , groups, federal agencies and , the goal of this workshop-oriented event is to not just identity and quantify these risks, but also offer strategies on how to adapt and improve resiliencies as the global climate becomes increasingly unstable."

For more information or to request an invitation, please visit https://americatalyst.com/2024-going-to-extremes/

Although the semifrozen housing market is unhealthy due to lack of supply and low affordability levels, the chances for a crash currently remain low. Here are the factors to watch.

02/22/2024

"Everyone should read this incredibly important article in The Financial Times, "The uninsurable world: What climate change is costing homeowners". We'll be discussing the insurance crisis in depth in our opening session, "The Canary" at AmeriCatalyst's GOING TO EXTREMES: The Climate, Housing and Finance Leadership Summit being held on April 18 and 19 at the Ga***rd National Harbor. You won't want to miss it."

- Toni Moss, CEO

For more information, go to https://americatalyst.com/2024-going-to-extremes/

FIRST SESSION STARTS IN __ DAYS : __ HOURS : __ MINUTES LEARN MORE > April 18 – 19, 2024 | Washington, DCThe Ga***rd National Resort Now is the time for leadership We Know what’s coming — Let’s be proactive and get ahead of it A future of extreme weather events that increase in frequency, [....

02/22/2024

"When we announced our new event, : The Climate, Housing and Finance Leadership Summit, was one of the first to recognize the importance of the event and respond enthusiastically. We are so thankful for Nanci and Alston & Bird's leadership role in this historic, inaugural event. In this article, Nanci highlights the recent New York Department of Financial Services' guidance document which impacts New York state-regulated entities. This is just the beginning, folks. Expect increasing compliance requirements around climate-related issues moving forward. Nanci, as always, is at the vanguard of what is coming next and is always worth following."

- Toni Moss, CEO

What Happened? On December 21, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) published an 18-page guidance document (the “Guidance”) on

02/05/2024

Our CEO recently sat down with REI INK Magazine to discuss the impact of climate shifts on the housing and real estate sectors, along with a preview of the hot topics we’ll be discussing at our April 2024 event, "Going to Extremes: The Extreme Climate, Housing and Finance Leadership Summit"

Toni Moss & AmeriCatalyst Present the 2024 Climate & Housing Conference Toni Moss, CEO of AmeriCatalyst LLC, never intended to produce conferences. An expert on global mortgage markets, Mos…

02/01/2024

AmeriCatalyst and Toni Moss are back with our new conference, ‘Going To Extremes,' April 18-19, 2024 in Washington, DC | Read all about it at http://tinyurl.com/GOING-TO-EXTREMES-24