The NAR provided a 5-point plan to Congress and the administration of recommendations made to recover the housing industry and overall economy
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently worked alongside policy leaders, industry representatives, congress members and the media in an effort to present ideas and formulate recommendations on a strategy to aid the housing market, create jobs and stimulate growth of a sustainable economy.
As a result of those meetings, the NAR released a five-point plan of housing policy recommendations it sent to Ben Bernanke, President Obama and Congress.
NAR actuated that steps need to be taken to not risk weakening our nation’s housing market any further. NAR stated that this could be accomplished by redesigning the Qualified Residential Mortgage rule propagated by the Dodd-Frank Act, allowing higher loan limits to assure mortgage-financing options, and by declining proposals that require making tax rule alterations on homeownership.
The second recommendation NAR gave was a call to restore vitality in communities and neighborhoods by reducing foreclosure inventories. The actions involved in carrying this out included supporting the Helping Responsible Homeowners Act, which would remove refinancing limits on underwater properties for borrowers that have been paying on time, and by supporting bipartisan senate efforts to improve the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which would provide refinancing opportunities to at-risk borrowers who would otherwise default on their mortgage loans.
NAR offered a number of other recommendations, including; giving support to a secondary mortgage market model that required government participation, providing opportunities for private capital to return to the mortgage marketplace, and the need for the White House to hold a national housing summit to organize a new national housing policy.
NAR believes that a robust economic recovery will be difficult, but possible, if its five-point plan is executed by congress and the presidential administration. Details of the plan and the recommendations provided by the NAR to can be viewed here.