Buying a house without help is practically impossible — even if you’re a top housing official.
Benjamin Hobbs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s assistant secretary for public and Indian housing, lists a cash fund for a home down payment on his online wedding registry, which is posted on the wedding planning platform Zola.
It’s not an unusual registry request. Of the 87 percent of customers who put some sort of cash fund on their registry, 39 percent of the betrothed ask guests for money toward a new home, according to Zola’s recent surveys.
But ethics experts say Hobbs’s housing-related request stands apart. A political appointee, Hobbs oversees affordable housing programs for low-income families, seniors, disabled people and Native Americans. People trying to curry favor — lobbyists, politicians — could donate to the housing fund, the experts said. Current and former HUD staffers also noted it can also be hard to vet donations if people donate under a spouse’s name. A Washington Post reporter did not require a password to access Hobbs’s wedding registry when sent a link.
In a statement, Robbie Myers, HUD’s deputy assistant secretary for strategic communications, said all of HUD’s political appointees are “regularly encouraged” to check that official or personal activities are in compliance with the department’s ethics law division. He said Hobbs “is in compliance with all relevant laws and will not accept any improper gifts.”
“Thanks to the largest tax cut for working families in American history, Mr. Hobbs now has confidence in the housing market, and if family and friends wish to help his pursuit of the American Dream, they are welcome to do so as ethics has approved such gifts for a once-in-a-lifetime joyous occasion,” Myers said.
He added that it was “sad that The Washington Post chose to sleuth through the depths of the internet to try to tarnish an American in service to his country” and asked how many wedding registries The Post reported on during the Biden administration.
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, acting vice president of policy and government affairs at the Project on Government Oversight, said it is incumbent upon government officials, especially those with power, to be “extra vigilant about the appearance of impropriety.”
“You have to be extra careful, almost paranoid, about the various means and modes someone might try to influence you, even if they aren’t telling you that’s what they’re doing,” Hedtler-Gaudette said.
Hobbs is among those in the Trump administration pledging to make housing more affordable. The median sale price of a home was almost $430,000 in February, up 1 percent from the previous year, according to Redfin. New homes, along with other large purchases, feel unaffordable to most Americans, a recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found. And buyers are up against interest rates that climbed back over 6 percent after a brief dip.
On Friday, President Donald Trump unveiled a pair of executive orders to trim regulatory burdens and make it easier to build and finance new homes. The administration has also taken steps to ban investors from buying single-family homes and floated ideas such as a 50-year mortgage.
Much of the reason housing remains so expensive is because there aren’t enough homes to go around, especially starter homes for people buying for the first time. That increasingly means people ask parents to co-sign loans or put money toward a down payment.
Almost 20 percent of first-time buyers used a gift from friends and family toward their down payment, according to Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors. That’s down slightly from a recent 2019 peak of 27 percent but roughly in line with the past few years.
Newlyweds ask for financial help all the time, said Sammi Kobrin, brand director at Zola. On the platform, they can set up cash funds for honeymoons, home renovations, paying back student loans and donating to charity. Especially among younger couples, Kobrin said it simply isn’t taboo to ask for cash on a registry, with the goal of making new milestones happen.
“That’s not to say they’re not adding other items, like your traditional kitchen mixers and different pots and pans,” Kobrin said. “But this idea of having your guests fund this next step of your life is becoming much more practical.”
Indeed, Hobbs, the soon-to-be-married political appointee, is also asking friends and family for other familiar registry items: an air fryer, bath towels and a spatula, to name a few.
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