Filed under: Market matters, Personal finance, Politics, Housing

President Bush wants Congress to act fast on pending legislation that would give homeowners more options for refinancing their home loans. Economic adviser Ed Gillespie told reporters Bush wants Congress to act faster to “help make the market more stable.”

While some support this legislation, others think that those in trouble have made their own beds and now they must lie in them. Even so, many people who didn’t make any mistake and have fixed-rate loans are still feeling the pain as home prices continue to fall. Anything that can be done to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes will help everyone. Fewer homes will end up on the market at fire sale prices and the market will begin to stabilize.

What legislation does Bush want to pass? There are three key pieces:

• Make it easier for low-income homeowners to refinance adjustable-rate mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration. Of course, for this to work pre-payment penalties on those ARMs would have to be outlawed. Many of the ARMs set to jump 2% to 3% have prepayment penalties of $12,000 or more and home values lower than the mortgage amount due.

Continue reading Bush pushes bills to expand home refinancing options

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.