Posted on 09/18/2007 1:10:31 PM PDT by libertarianPA
WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday approved a plan to expand federal backing of mortgages in hopes of helping struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.
The bill, which passed the House, 348-72, would allow the Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages for low- and middle-income borrowers, to back refinanced loans for tens of thousands of borrowers who are delinquent on payments because their mortgages are resetting to sharply higher rates from low initial "teaser" levels.
The measure, which exceeds limits favored by the Bush administration, is Congress' first stand-alone bill in response to the mortgage-market tumult of the summer, which came amid a rising tide of defaults and foreclosures. The Senate last week passed spending legislation that includes $200 million to provide aid to nonprofits and other groups that offer counseling and information to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.
House Republicans sharply objected to a $300 million-a-year fund for grants for affordable rental housing and homeownership assistance for low-income families, which would be financed from FHA revenues — a plan also opposed by the Bush administration. But House Republicans mostly were swept along in the vote for the bill, whose overall thrust they endorsed in the face of the mortgage crisis.
"The American dream is in peril for many families in this country as foreclosures rise and dreams shatter," Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat from Ohio, a state particularly hard-hit by the default wave, declared in House debate before the vote.
Utopia realized with the stroke of a congressional pen. Holy crap!
“Struggling homeowners” who had no business buying something they couldn’t afford in the first place.
Gotta keep that bubble inflated.
so we should all quit paying our mortgages now so we can get these grants?
Why not just pass a law voiding all contracts? Contracts are too picky and mean anyway, they force people to make tradeoffs, and they presuppose that both parties are moral agents. These draconian conditions are getting in the way of things like free health care for everybody!
Corporate utopia. This is a move by the financers for a subsidy from the American public. They don’t want to foreclose and take the properties, for one, they allowed encouraged overvaluations in the first place. Also, why not get free money from the govt.? All one needs is a “crisis”.
Dang it! I knew I shoulda bought that 6000 sq ft house with the 50 acre horse farm even if it was waaaay over my head. Will they bail me out if I do something stooopid now? Surely I can find something I can’t afford.
Right, bailouts just encourage more bad behavior.
Congress may not be able to stop foreclosures from rising, but they can damn well keep dreams from shattering. From this point forward, all dreams must be made of shatter-proof polycarbonate! Shards of shattered dreams are the leading cause of lacerations among obese children under the poverty line!
So, I should get MORE because I bought a home within my means & pay my mortgage every month, riiiight?
Hurry! Maybe you’ll get in under the wire.
The scum in Congress probably figure that if they do this, it will prop up states’ proeprty taxes - thus delaying or deferring additional Federal taxes going to the states; allowing Congress more time to play with Federal dollars.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Exactly. How does this keep mortgage companies from issuing risky loans? It doesn’t. In fact, it encourages it, because our tax dollars guarantee the loan. And I love the double-speak. This is NOT designed to protect homeowners or keep them in their homes, it’s designed to bail out mortgage companies when homeowners default.
Yep, just like today’s action by the Fed will do.
Ther just never seems to be enough welfare.
I’m OK with reasonable amending of FHA guidelines. The other stuff I’d toss.
FHA is FHA. It’s been around for years.
Lenders have already tightened non-FHA guidelines and this bill won’t affect that at all.
I guarantee I will quit paying my debts and declare bankruptcy if these speculators get bailed out (I technically could declare bk because retirement assets in my state aren't counted).
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