Public Law No: 110-289 – the ’semi-final leg’
As with many of the Olympics events, the semi-finals of most matches means the medals are next, then finished. After today’s Blog post, I now can clearly see the finish; I expect just one more Blog post will finally complete this Public Law No. 100-289 narrative, Thanks for hanging in there with me.
I can recall the many years ago, when our young company received it’s FHA Title I approval package in the mail. It contained their insurance contract with my company, other paperwork, and if I remember correctly four decals to post on the windows that faced outside (we had a retail ground floor office) … the EAGLE (there were 2) was about the size of a beach vollyball and there were also 2 other smaller ones, just about the size of that disc our female Gold Metal winner tossed in her first throw day before yesterday! I was excited and wanted them up on the windows and proudly displayed for our customers to see! I was also still very uneasy about one troubling area in the contract with HUD however. As a lender, and ‘holder in due course’ whenever we financed stuff, if the manufacturer/distributor (‘Dealer’) when out of business and/or wouldn’t honor its warranty/guarantee work etc. for borrowers, the Lender was obligated to actually perform those duties (even if we didn’t know how, we had to pay and hire people to do it); couldn’t afford that? Then the borrower’s contract with us would be VOID! Therefore we were always concerned about the Integrity and Financial status of our “dealers’ – from your own ‘gut’ that made clear good sense to both protect the borrowers and ourselves. Well our pals at HUD, went one better! They mandated that WE guarantee the ‘financial statements’ of the dealers were 100% honest, genuine and all they proprted to be … not merely to the ‘best of our knowledge’, but we had to warrant they were actually true! WOW!! Because of that, I set our production goals very low, since I was worried to death one of them might bury us if they defaulted in their future obligations to the borrowers! I understood HUD’s position though, if they were compelled to pay-out a loss claim, they wanted to not only be able to potentially go back on the borrowers, and the dealers but for good measure, they wanted us all tied together in a nice little bow to help mitigate their losses! I wonder if they ever changed?
The next area, Section 2141, covers the ‘FHA Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act of 2008’ and it’s purpose as spelled out “… the purposes of this are to provide adequate funding for FHA-insured manufactured housing loans for low- and moderate-income homebuyers during all economic cycles in the manufactured housing industry; to modernize the FHA title I insurance program for manufactured housing loans to enhance participation by Ginnie Mae and the private lending markets; and to adjust the low loan limits for title I manufactured home loan insurance to reflect the increase in costs since such limits were last increased in 1992 and to index the limits to inflation.” This section goes on to discuss the revision of Maximum Loan Amounts, Insurance Premiums, some Technical Corrections, and that Hud shall shall revise the existing underwriting criteria for the program within 6 months.
The next section – Title II is the MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE PROTECTIONS FOR SERVICEMEMBERS portion of Public Law 110-289. Part of which is generally a temporary 25% increase in the maximum loan amount on VA Loans until December 31, 2008. Plus its “implements a program to advise members of the Armed Forces (including members of the National Guard and Reserve) who are returning from service on active duty abroad (including service in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom) on actions to be taken by such members to prevent or forestall mortgage foreclosures.” Additionally certain portions of the ‘Servicemembers Civil Relief Act’ (as I recall it’s the successor to the former Soldiers & Sailors Relief Act of 1944) are enhanced and extended ….”
For the remained of fiscal year 2008, under the EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE FOR THE REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES section “… $4,000,000,000 is to remain available until expended, for assistance to States and units of general local government for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed upon homes and residential properties.” It then rambles on for four pages and almost 2,000 words detailing under which conditions this money is to be utilized.
One of the smaller sections of this new law is next,the MORTGAGE DISCLOSURE IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008. It enhances and modifies portions of certain language in the Truth in Lending Act Disclosures.
The COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENT AUTHORITY FOR DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS modifies 12 words in several statutes enhancing the authority of both National Banks and State Member Banks for these purposes.
Coming up next time is TITLE VI–VETERANS HOUSING MATTERS ….
