ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – On Wednesday, our state’s housing authority broke down just what our state’s housing picture looks like. They revealed a new look they hope will help New Mexicans better understand how they can help.

The New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority is rebranding. From now on, MFA wants to be known as Housing New Mexico.

“So the Mortgage Finance Authority and that name no longer describes what we do and who we are,” said Isidoro Hernandez, a Housing New Mexico executive director. 

Housing New Mexico is a quasi-governmental agency which runs more than 40 programs across the state to help provide affordable housing opportunities.

“I would describe our dream of what our vision is in our vision statement at the Housing New Mexico is that all New Mexicans will have affordable housing opportunities across the full spectrum, where there’s from homelessness to homeownership and everything in between,” said Hernandez.

The need for affordable housing is there. Along with the rebrand, Housing New Mexico issued it’s annual affordable housing needs report. 

The report found median home prices jumped from $200,000 to $306,000 between 2018 and 2022. Currently, the median prices of a single family home in New Mexico is $353,000. 

44% of renters and 28% of homeowners are cost-burdened, meaning they’re spending more than 30% of their income to cover housing costs. Homelessness increased 50% from 2022 to 2023. 

“And definitely there’s not a shortage of need, and definitely a lot more resources are needed to really make a huge dent in the need out there,” said Hernandez. 

Housing New Mexico set to spend more than $84 million it received from the state this year to help address those needs.

That money will go towards helping first time homebuyers get into a home, building more housing, updating homes, and creating stable housing for homeless people.