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NAR CALLS FOR LAME-DUCK SESSION; SEEKS 4-POINT HOUSING STIMULUS

NAR is offering a four-point legislative plan to reinvigorate the housing market and calls on Congress to act during a lame-duck session. NAR believes its plan will give a boost to the economy and help to calm jittery potential home buyers.

"Housing has always lifted the economy out of downturns, and it is imperative to get the housing market moving forward as quickly as possible," says NAR President Richard F. Gaylord. "It is vital to the economy that Congress take specific actions to boost the confidence of potential home buyers in the housing market and make it easier for qualified buyers to get safe and affordable mortgage loans. We are asking Congress to act right away."

All of the provisions in NAR's plan are consumer driven:

1. First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

Remove the requirement that first-time home buyers repay the $7,500 tax credit, and expand the tax credit to apply not only to first-time buyers but also to all buyers of a primary residence.

2. Conforming Loan Limits

Revise the FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac 2008 stimulus loan limit increases to make them permanent. The Economic Stabilization Act, enacted in February, made loan limit increases temporary, and subsequent legislation reduced the loan limits and made them permanent. This has broad implication for homebuyers in high cost areas.

3. Credit Crunch

Use a portion of the allotted $700 billion that was provided for the purchase of mortgage-backed securities from banks to provide price stabilization for housing. The Treasury department should be required to use the newly enacted Troubled Assets Relief Program to push banks to:

a. Extend credit down to Main Street, making credit more available to consumers and small businesses; b. Expedite the process for short sales; c. Expedite the resolution of banks' real estate owned (REOs) properties.

4. Banks Out of Real Estate

Make permanent the prohibition against banks entering real estate brokerage and management, further protecting consumers and the economy. Gaylord said that NAR will strongly pursue those proposals and is calling on Congress to return to enact housing stimulus legislation in a lame-duck session after the national elections in November.