Housing Mortgage Bill -- Vahl Comments

First, here are excerpts from an article that describes the Housing Mortgage Bill that will likely be signed by the President before the end of the year:

Boosting Fannie and Freddie
To help stabilize markets, which were shaken in the past few weeks by steep declines in the stock prices of Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), Treasury Secretary Paulson asked Congress on July 13 to give the Treasury power to provide a liquidity and capital "backstop" for the two companies.

Fannie and Freddie guarantee the purchase and trade of mortgages and own or back $5.2 trillion in mortgages.

The bill allows Treasury over the next 18 months to offer Fannie and Freddie an unlimited line of credit and the authority to buy stock in the companies if necessary.

Shares of Fannie closed 12% higher and those of Freddie 9% on Wednesday. Fannie's stock is down 79% and Freddie's 84% over the past year.


Helping at-risk borrowers
The bill also aims to help homeowners at risk of foreclosure and to bolster regulation of Fannie and Freddie. Among other things, it would:

Increase the Federal Housing Administration's role. The FHA could insure up to $300 billion in new 30-year fixed rate mortgages for at-risk borrowers in owner-occupied homes if lenders agree to write down loan balances to 90% of the homes' current appraised value.

Lenders would also agree to pay upfront fees to the FHA equal to 3% of a home's appraised value. Borrowers must agree to pay an annual premium to the FHA equal to 1.5% of their new loan balance. They must also agree to share with the government any profit they realize from selling or refinancing.


Create home-buyer credit. The bill includes a tax refund for first-time home buyers worth up to 10% of a home's purchase price but no more than $7,500.

The refund, however, serves more as an interest-free loan, since it would have to be paid back over 15 years in equal installments. It would be reduced gradually for single filers with adjusted gross incomes above $75,000 and for joint filers with AGIs over $150,000.


Bar down-payment assistance for FHA loans. The bill eliminates a program that has allowed sellers to provide down payment assistance. The seller-funded program is largely the reason why the agency's reserve has fallen by $4.6 billion, according to FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery. Currently, that reserve is roughly $16.4 billion.

The bill would also increase to 3.5% from 3% the down payment requirement for borrowers getting FHA loans.


Give grants to states to buy foreclosed properties. The bill would grant $4 billion to states to buy up and rehabilitate foreclosed properties.

Quick comments by Vahl:

I personally approve of this bill. It's close enough to my Earth-Never solution to the Housing crisis. The only thing that bothers me is the removal of the seller assistance for down payments. I understand why it has to be this way ... it just potentially delays my first home purchase. Since the home I'm looking at is EXTREMELY cheap, I know I'm not a bad borrower if I get down-payment assistance. This is what happens when government is forced to step in to solve a problem -- the whole populace is punished because of a few bad apples.

Don't believe me? Have you flown anywhere lately?

Anyway, I accept this reality.

Winners: People currently in danger of losing their home to foreclosure.

Losers: People who've ALREADY lost their homes to foreclosure.

LME Practitioners rewarded: The banks, some very lucky thoughtless borrowers.

I pray that Repubs and Dems who support off-shore drilling will filibuster this bill in the Senate until their voice his heard and their bill(s) are brought up for a vote.

Lazy Man's Ethics and Elliot Spitzer

Dear Skew,

Is Prostitution okay?

Let's look at this from the perspective of LME (Lazy Man's Ethics). LME morality says, "Prostitution is okay ... as long as you don't get caught!"

Clearly, Elliot Spitzer was an LME practitioner.


Does prostitution affect the family?

Again, LME morality says, "Prostitution is okay ... as long as you don't get caught!"


What about other forms of sexual immorality?

You mean like porn, strip clubs, and craigslist encounters? Here comes Pete and Repeat: LME morality says, "Prostitution is okay ... as long as you don't get caught!"

REAL morality says, "Families are destroyed by a spouse's infidelity. Children are given the wrong message and a poor example when a parent commits sexual sin."

I know ... I'm going against what I learned in public school by allowing the word "Sin" to appear in this blog in a moral context. I'll be sure to confess my allegiance to the party and denounce Goldstein real soon.

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Let me go into a related tangent -- there's no need to reinvent the wheel here. Family structures do not need to change in order to allow sexual immorality into the home.

The family structure needs integrity, and parents of integrity.

In case some of you have forgotten, here is the definition of integrity, from freedictionary.com:

in·teg·ri·ty
1. Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.

2. The state of being unimpaired; soundness.

3. The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.

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[Middle English integrite, from Old French, from Latin integrits, soundness, from integer, whole, complete;]

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I guess politicians like Spitzer forgot that word after graduating Law School.