Washington/September 17, 2007/ — 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 credit-worthy 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.
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