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Major provisions of housing rescue package
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Major provisions of a housing rescue bill in the House aimed at heading off foreclosures, preventing neighborhood blight and stabilizing the market.
_ Give the Federal Housing Administration $300 billion in new lending authority and relax its standards to provide affordable, fixed-rate mortgages to debt-ridden homeowners.
_ Modernize the FHA and allow it to back loans for riskier borrowers. Permanently increase the size of loans the agency can insure — currently set to revert to $362,790 by the end of the year — to $729,750 in the highest-cost areas.
_ Tighten regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that finance mortgages, and permanently raise the limit on the loans they can buy — set to revert to $417,000 by the end of the year — to $729,750 in the highest-cost areas.
_ Provide low-income housing tax breaks, low-income rental housing incentives and a credit of up to $7,500 for first-time homebuyers, to be paid back over 15 years.
_ Give states $10 billion in tax-free municipal bond authority for low-interest loans to first-time homebuyers, construction of low-income rental housing, and refinancing subprime mortgages.
_ Create a safe harbor from investor lawsuits for mortgage holders who modify loans to borrowers who are in default or about to default.
_ Provide $210 million for pre-foreclosure counseling.
_ Send $15 billion in loans and grants to states for buying and fixing up foreclosed property.
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Its a bailout
Why should taxpayers finance people who can't control their own spending. Not to mention moving the risk to taxpayer instead of the … read more lenders. Its a election year stunt and that is all.
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