WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 -The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today
called on the U.S. House of Representatives to approve legislation this week
that would allow the Federal Housing Administration to insure more home loans
and address problems in the subprime mortgage market.
Underscoring the importance of this issue to the housing community, NAHB sent a
letter to every House member urging them to support H.R. 1852, the Expanding
American Homeownership Act of 2007, when the bill goes to the House floor later
this week.
“Because this measure is so vital to restoring the FHA’s capacity to support
affordable mortgage financing and to allow the agency to address problems in the
subprime mortgage market, NAHB has designated passage of H.R. 1852 as a key
vote,” said NAHB President Brian Catalde, a home builder from El Segundo, Calif.
Faced with a deepening constriction in the availability and affordability of
housing credit at time when FHA’s programs have failed to keep pace with
competing conventional mortgage loan programs, NAHB told lawmakers that
“Congress now has the opportunity to modernize the FHA and enable it to play a
key role in stabilizing the mortgage markets, while offering borrowers a safe
and fair mortgage alternative.”
In addition, NAHB is also urging House members to support a bipartisan amendment
to H.R. 1852 offered by Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Gary Miller (R-Calif.) and
Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) that would enable more creditworthy borrowers to
purchase an FHA-insured home in major metropolitan markets by raising the FHA
loan limits in high-cost areas. Currently, the FHA loan limit is too low to
allow many potential home buyers to utilize the FHA program in markets where
housing costs run high.
