House Passes Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act Legislation Will Help Families At Risk of Foreclosure Stay in Homes
(Washington, D.C.) Today Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) joined a bipartisan majority of his colleagues in the House of Representatives to pass the Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act. This critical legislation seeks to solve the economic challenges faced by the nation's mortgage crisis by helping families at risk of foreclosure keep their homes, protecting neighborhoods struck by declining home values, and stabilize and stimulate the market.
"When a single home forecloses, the value of the entire neighborhoods suffers. The mortgage crisis has been incredibly hard on South Florida, where in some areas, home values have plummeted by over twenty percent,” said Congressman Wexler. “This housing package is an important step towards ending the mortgage crisis that has shaken the very foundation of the US economy. By helping families facing foreclosure refinance their loans and increasing accountability for lenders, this legislation will help South Florida regain its economic strength.”
Key components of the Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act include:
• Putting a tough, independent new regulator in charge of the housing Government Sponsored Enterprises, or GSEs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks) • Helping at least 400,000 hard-working families in danger of losing their home refinance into lower-cost mortgages they can afford to repay – at no cost to the American taxpayer; • Providing necessary stand-by authority to the Treasury Department in the unlikely case that the GSEs require temporary federal financial intervention. This authority will likely never have to be used, but it is the best way to boost market confidence and stabilize the housing finance market; • Stimulating the market and spurring home buying with $15 billion in tax benefits, including a refundable tax credit to first-time homebuyers of up to $7,500; • Preserving the American Dream for our nation’s veterans by helping soldiers avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.
Read the full text of this legislation.
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