Congresswoman Jackie Speier showed this week that, at times, Washington can move pretty swiftly.  

Last week, Speier read press reports about Bay Area homeowners potentially being shut out of the administration’s mortgage modification program because their loans exceeded the $417,000 FHA conforming loan limit at the time of origination.  Looking for a remedy to this situation, she submitted an amendment to a housing bill to raise the limit in more costly areas to as high as $729,750.

Today, she applauded President Obama for including the higher figure in his mortgage modification guidelines.

“This more realistic limit will help working people all across the country living in communities with higher than average real estate values.  This not only affects the San Francisco Bay Area, but communities up and down both coasts and across the great breadth of our nation.  It helps homeowners in areas like Blaine County, Idaho; Elizabeth City, North Carolina; Salt Lake City, Utah and Jefferson County, West Virginia.  These are not, by-and-large, wealthy risk-takers living in McMansions but hard working people whose jobs and families require them to live in more costly areas.”

The details to the president’s plan can be found at: http://www.treasury.gov/press/releases/reports/modification_program_guidelines.pdf