Bill's key provisions
• Gives the Federal Housing Administration $300 billion in new lending authority and relaxes standards to provide affordable, fixed-rate mortgages to debt-ridden homeowners. Any losses would be covered by an affordable housing fund financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that finance mortgages. It could help at least 400,000 families avoid foreclosure.
• Creates an independent regulator to oversee Fannie and Freddie. Increases the limits on loans they can buy or guarantee from $417,000 to $625,500. Gives Treasury temporary authority to increase its line of credit to the mortgage giants and buy their stock.
• Provides $3.9 billion in grants to the hardest-hit communities for buying and fixing up foreclosed property.
• Modernizes the FHA and allows it to back loans for riskier borrowers. Increases the size of loans that the agency may insure -- currently set to revert to $362,790 by year's end -- to $625,000 in the highest-cost areas. The agency could buy loans 15 percent higher than the median home price in certain cities.
• Bars the FHA from insuring mortgages in which the borrower's down payment is paid by the seller, beginning Oct. 1. Places a one-year moratorium to bar the agency from charging premiums based on the riskiness of the homeowner, until Oct. 1, 2009.
• Provides $15 billion in tax benefits. Lets people who don't itemize their taxes claim a $500-$1,000 deduction on their 2008 property taxes.
about the writer
While the focus was on Vice President Kamala Harris in their first media interview of the presidential campaign, Walz was asked if voters could take him at his word.
