MAA Call to Action: Urge the House to Repair the Senate Housing Bill
(Image courtesy of Wendy Maxwell/pexels.com)
The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Action Alliance has released a Call to Action, encouraging members to contact their House representative and urge them to correct four concerning sections in the Senate-passed ROAD to Housing Act.
Congress is currently considering major housing legislation that combines elements of two previously separate bills: the ROAD to Housing Act (S. 2651) and the Housing for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 6644). A comprehensive package containing provisions from both bills passed the U.S. Senate on March 12.
While the Senate’s bill (H.R. 6644, as amended) includes several measures intended to improve housing affordability and supply, it also contains four sections that require correction before the legislation is enacted:
• Section 901 purports to ban institutional investors owning more than 350 units from purchasing ANY additional single-family housing. However, the definition of “single-family home” in the current text applies to rental townhomes and other attached units. Although there are carve-outs for certain types of build-to-rent transactions, they come with a requirement to dispose of those holdings after seven years–with existing previously built-to-rent properties not explicitly exempted.
• Section 213 was intended to raise FHA multifamily loan limits for the first time since 2003. However, drafting errors in the current text would instead force FHA to lower those limits, undermining the section’s original purpose.
• Section 602 would expand FHA’s consumer disclosure requirements to include VA loan pricing comparisons. Stakeholders note that lenders already provide this information through existing processes, and the new mandate could be costly without improving consumer outcomes.
• Section 101 would require servicers of all government backed loans to provide “foreclosure mitigation” counseling to any borrower who becomes 30 days delinquent. It would also require the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF) to pay for counseling across multiple federal programs, raising concerns about whether this use of the MMIF is appropriate or permissible.
Click here for more information about how to contact your representative
