Upcoming Program Changes

Encompass TPOC Implementation

2025 Housing Education Symposium Recap

Vicki George Award Winner

Top Producers and Wow Award Winners

Lender Notices

Lender Training Opportunities 

REALTOR Training Opportunities

Tennessee Housing Trends

The Housing Education & Resource Team hosted the 2025 Housing Education Symposium in Memphis this year, as we celebrated Tennessee Housing Counselors with a Memphis Soul Stew Blues theme! It was a wonderful collaboration of Housing Counselors, lenders, and housing industry experts coming together to enhance sustainable housing across Tennessee.  The event was kicked off with a City Bus Tour of Memphis neighborhoods showcasing development of homes being constructed by one of our network partners, United Housing Inc., as well as showcasing development of Klondike Smokey CDC and The Works. Our City Bus Tour Sponsor, Pinnacle Financial Partners, was able to show their Pinnacle Economic Empowerment Resource (PEER) Center in the Whitehaven community that has banking and community space the community can utilize for meetings or classes. We conducted our Opening Plenary on Monday with a Welcome Video from THDA’s Executive Director, Ralph Perrey, and a warm greeting from Ashley Cash with the City of Memphis.

Tuesday’s keynote speaker, Dr. Earl Suttle, energized and lifted everyone in the audience on their feet with Dr. Earl’s Inspirational Pearls. His challenge was to have everyone do a personal growth plan and determine the attitude they will live by to achieve their goals. Yvonne Hall, HERT Manager, also challenged each Network Partner to collaborate with 1 sponsor and 1 vendor from this year’s conference to connect on how they can work together to promote their programs and services to the greater community.

We want to thank the many banks and housing industry sponsors who made this event possible. They not only shared information about the incredible work they are doing in the community, but they also made great connections to the Housing Counseling community in Tennessee. We want to recognize them for their outstanding work!

We also want to send a special thank you to Amber Holland, the Single-Family Loan Operations Administrative Coordinator, for taking time out of her busy schedule to help support this event. We appreciate her willingness to share her knowledge and skills.

The 2025 Vicki George Award of Housing Industry Excellence was awarded to:

Deborah Balthrop of Good Neighbor Foundation & Life of Victory

During the Monday evening Memphis Soul Stew: Awards Reception, we celebrated Tennessee Housing Counselors by recognizing their outstanding work.

Top Producer Awards Included:

You Can Make It Homeownership Center (Pictured Above)

Unlimited Potential CDC

HomeSource of east tennessee

Affordable Housing Resources

Eastern Eight CDC

UT Extension Dyer County

Dominion Financial Management

United Housing, Inc.

UT Extension Hamblen County

Knoxville Area Urban League

Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Chattanooga

UT Extension Madison County

Housing Education & Counseling partners and Symposium sponsors were recognized in the Memphis Soul Stew video.

Congratulations to all our winners!

 Housing Counselors Recognized With a Wow Award Were:

Elizabeth Renfro of UT Extension Washington County (First to Register Award)

Selah Melvin of Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (Rising Star Award)

Ernesto Rene Yanes of Knoxville Area Urban League (Reporting Award)

Rachel Erwin of UT Extension Dyer County (Exceptional Service Award)

Stacy Clark of UT Extension Lawrence County (Perseverance Award)

Donna Calhoun of UT Extension Polk County (Kindness & Willingness to Help Others Award)

Antoinette Jenkins of New Level CDC (Continuing Education Hour Award)

ICE Encompass TPOC Implementation Update

Effective August 29, 2025

Click to Read Lender Notice # 2025-22

Great Choice Updates

Effective September 1, 2025

Click to Read Lender Notice # 2025-21

Great Choice & HFA Advantage Operations Training

Live via WebEx 

This training covers all the basics of the Great Choice Loan Program and is required for all newly approved lenders, as well as serving as a refresher course for experienced staff. Topics include Eligibility Criteria, Homebuyer Education Requirements, Rate Lock & Loan Submission, Underwriting, Closing & Funding Requirements, and processes for each. While this is a prepared presentation, we will still leave plenty of time at the end for questions. 

Click Lender Training to register for one of the sessions below.

The links are at the bottom of the webpage.

Morning Sessions 9:00 AM-10:30 AM Central/ 10:00 AM-11:30 AM Eastern

August 13 Topic: HFA Advantage

September 10: Great Choice

Afternoon Sessions 1:00 PM- 2:30 PM Central/ 2:00 PM- 3:30 PM Eastern

August 13 Topic: Great Choice

September 10: HFA Advantage

Please email rbicknell@thda.org for a monthly calendar invitation.

We are happy to announce our 2025 THDA Virtual Training Sessions for Realtors.

August 19th at 9:00AM CT

Topic: Great Choice 101 Basics Training, 1 hour CE

September 16th at 9:00AM CT

Topic: Freddie Mac HFA Advantage Training, 2 hour CE

September 30th at 6PM CT

Topic: Great Choice 101 Basics Training, 1 hour CE

As part of my role as one of THDA’s Real Estate Industry Advisors, I try to keep up with state housing sales data in some of our biggest markets. The national, state, and local Realtor associations do an incredible job of pulling together this information and making it available to their members and the public at large. I thought that it might be beneficial to have some of this data complied together in one place. I’ve included the credits for this information below; please check in with these organizations to learn more about housing sales in their markets.

National Housing Trends: The NAR Housing Affordability Index “measures whether or not a typical family earns enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan on a typical home at the national and regional levels based on the most recent price and income data.” Learn more about the index here.

Credit to the National Association of Realtors

State Housing Trends: Credit to Tennessee Realtors

Chattanooga: Credit to Greater Chattanooga Realtors

Knoxville Area: Credit to East Tennessee Realtors

Memphis: Credit to the Memphis Area Association of Realtors

Nashville: Credit to the Greater Nashville Realtors

Northeast Tennessee: Credit to the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors

502 Deaderick St., Nashville, TN 37243