S.2338
April 24, 2008 04:04 PM (5 months ago) | Overall Score: 5.0 | Replies: 0

NRMLA Washington Update: April 2008 April 24, 2008 Here's the latest legislative update from the NRMLA (National Rev Mtg Lenders Assn) website. Legislative Update Since returning from Spring recess, Congress has become preoccupied with passing foreclosure prevention legislation to deal with falling home values and the credit crisis. On April 10, the Senate passed a bipartisan package (S. 3221) built around tax incentives designed to spur the purchase of homes in foreclosure and grant relief to struggling homebuilders. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) was successful at getting her reverse mortgage bill (S. 2490) added to S. 3221. The Reverse Mortgage Protection Proceeds Act would prohibit lenders from requiring the purchase of an annuity with the proceeds of a reverse mortgage and require HUD to pay for mandatory HECM counseling out of the mortgage insurance fund. It also would create requirements for financial service companies that offer reverse mortgages and other products to have “firewalls and safeguards” between their various lines of business. The House is assembling its own, potentially broader alternative tax bill, starting with a package of housing-related tax breaks (HR 5720) approved April 9 by the Ways and Means Committee chaired by Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY). Both the Senate and House measures include provisions aimed at helping home­owners refinance their mortgages. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is expected to sponsor a broader housing bill that would allow the FHA to insure refinanced mortgages if lenders agree to cut the outstanding principal on the loan to reflect the reduced value of a property. Frank said his committee will mark up his FHA legislation on April 24. We’re working to make sure our HECM provisions will be incorporated into whatever bill emerges from this mark-up. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has also introduced a reverse mortgage bill (HR 5758) that is modeled after Senator McCaskill’s legislation (S. 2490). It’s quite possible that Chairman Frank will incorporate HR 5758 into his housing bill. In addition to S. 3221 mentioned above, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, is working on a housing bill with Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the committee’s ranking Republican member, that will include tax relief language provided by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking member Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). NRMLA is working with Chairman Frank and Chairman Dodd to get our HECM language included in whatever bill is ultimately passed in the end. Our best assessment right now is that Congressman Frank will take the bill his committee marks-up this week to the House floor and attempt to get it passed with several other bills, including FHA Modernization (with the HECM amendments), as part of a large overall housing package, probably during the first or second week of May.

S.2338
March 31, 2008 07:03 PM (6 months ago) | Overall Score: 5.0 | Replies: 0

Hi Mr. Grouch from the Midwest- I, too, have been writing my Senators and Congresspeople here in California. Just now got this response from Senator Diane Feinstein: "You may be interested to know that conference negotiations to resolve the differences between the House-passed version of the FHA reform bill (H.R. 1852) and the Senate-passed version (S. 2338) are ongoing." So basically, they're still talking and not yet ready to give a final version of the bill to the President. There's apparently nothing new beyond that. I think all any of us can do is to keep calling and writing our elected officials and getting other interested parties to do the same. And yes, the National Assn of Realtors and NRMLA are both lobbying for this in Washington. Chrys Barnes Pacific Capital Mortgage

S.2338
March 28, 2008 06:03 PM (6 months ago) | Overall Score: 5.0 | Replies: 0

I do know that the National Assn of Realtors is waging an email campaign. The National Rev Mtg Lenders Assn is on it as well, so some political pressure is being applied. It IS frustrating, though, to feel that no one in power is listening.

S.2338
March 27, 2008 08:03 PM (6 months ago) | Overall Score: 5.0 | Replies: 0

Hi. I'm a reverse mortgage loan originator from San Luis Obispo, CA. I wanted to clarify that the Stimulus Package which raised the Fannie/Freddie conforming loan limits as well as the FHA loan limits for 2008 SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED HECMs, the FHA reverse mortgage product. The proposed increase to the HECM loan limits is contained in the FHA Modernization Act, which according to the Library of Congress website has passed both Houses but is still listed as "Held at the desk." http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.02338: is that link. So, as many of you have indicated, we loan officers as well as our senior customers are still sitting and waiting for Congress to negotiate the final legislation and submit it to the President.