From 2007-2011 NORC worked with the World Bank’s FIRST Initiative, a special-project facility to support improvements to operations of financial markets in emerging countries, to evaluate and improve housing finance capabilities in the Palestinian Territories. The project began with a study of the present Palestinian system for housing finance. NORC then developed recommendations for technical assistance programs to enhance the capabilities of mortgage lenders and increase mortgage lending, which was further supported by a U.S. $500 million credit facility for new housing development in the West Bank provided by the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation in cooperation with other international donor agencies. Based on review of primary and secondary source material, stakeholder roundtable discussions, and extensive in-depth interviews with stakeholders in government and the private sector, work products eventually included a diagnostic analysis of current issues in housing finance, recommendations to improve the legal and regulatory environment for housing finance, proposed approaches to regulation of large-scale housing development projects, and improvements in regulation of land and housing transactions and registration of rights to real property. As part of the work, NORC staff organized a series of workshops for judges and other judicial personnel under the auspices of the Palestinian Judicial Institute and developed judicial training materials in housing finance.