This week has seen a flurry of stimulus talks on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a coronavirus aid proposal worth about $908 billion on Tuesday, aiming to break a months-long partisan impasse over emergency federal relief for the U.S. economy amid the ongoing pandemic. The new plan came amid a flurry of congressional jostling about the shape of economic relief.

As the COVID-19 pandemic tests the resilience of rural economies in real-time, this five-part research series argues that our attention should not be focused on an outdated, inaccurate image of rural America, but rather on understanding, sustaining, and investing in the hyperlocal strategies already working to bring growth and equity to increasingly diverse and dynamic rural areas.

President-Elect Biden and his transition team announced on Monday several nominees and appointments for the incoming administration's top economic posts. The transition team confirmed that former Fed Chair Janet Yellen will be Biden's official nominee for Treasury secretary.

The California Community Housing Agency and the Catalyst Housing Group are pleased to announce the $49 million acquisition of The Arbors, a 162-unit rental property in Livermore, CA. CalCHA and Catalyst will transition the currently market-rate property to a rent-restricted community serving middle-income households earning no more than 120% of Alameda County's median income.

A powerful concoction made up of stimulus hopes, vaccine progress, and a patient Federal Reserve is powering inflation expectations to their highest levels in months. Worries around renewed price pressures have spilled over into the bond market, sending long-term Treasury yields to multiweek highs, amid hopes that a Senate bipartisan coronavirus aid proposal on Tuesday and a COVID-19 vaccine will allow the economy to begin returning to normal in 2021.

LISC CEO Maurice A. Jones joined President Bill Clinton, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to talk solutions to the housing crisis in a post-pandemic landscape on a Clinton Foundation video-streamed panel, "Affordable Housing and (Re)building the American Dream."

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic, a powerful movement for racial justice, and the devastating impacts of climate change have combined to bring the nation's longstanding housing challenges to the fore. The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University released the 2020 State of the Nation's Housing report during a live-streamed event.

This piece from the Urban Institute examines how the students, parents, community organizers, and local leaders in Camden, NJ, Perry County, KY, and Hayward, CA are using data to make their communities better for themselves, for their neighbors, and for future generations through the Promise Neighborhoods program.

CDFA // BNY Mellon Development Finance Webcast Series: Educational Facilities Funding Solutions
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - 1:00 PM Eastern

CDFA-PFM Capital Markets Webinar Series: Mitigating Default Risk with Bond Guarantee Programs
December 17, 2020 - 2:00 - 3:30 PM Eastern

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The 2020 Housing Instability & Homelessness Report Series is a collection of reports by UNC that utilizes local data to provide informative and actionable research to engage a variety of stakeholders including elected officials, policymakers, funders, service providers, people with lived experience, media outlets, and the general community. This report is for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area.

The Municipal Liquidity Facility is a Federal Reserve program created in April as a new financing source for state and local governments. This MLF factsheet was produced by the Pew Charitable Trusts in October 2020.

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