Initiatives that aimed to reduce costs involved with purchasing a home were a key portion of the White House's activities both before and after President Biden's State of the Union speech earlier this spring.

But creating affordable housing access has long been a focus of the mortgage lending community, albeit mandated for depositories as part of the Community Reinvestment Act.

For example, prior to gaining notoriety for contributing to the excesses that created the Great Financial Crisis, Countrywide Financial and its CEO Angelo Mozilo were known as being the largest boosters of affordable housing programs.

In 1999, he announced a $30 billion increase in the company's five-year commitment to serve low-income and minority borrowers, to a total of $80 billion. The first year of the commitment, Countrywide originated $20 billion of these loans.

Here are some of the latest items, both government announcements as well as from within the industry, aimed to aid people who need assistance buying a home: