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REALTORS® Return to Capitol
Hill
NAR Mid-year
Legislative Meetings to Focus on
Efforts to Stabilize
Housing Markets
On May 11, 2009, REALTORS® from across the nation
will begin arriving in Washington, D.C. for the National Association of
REALTORS® Mid-year Legislative Meetings
and Trade Expo. Advancing NAR’s legislative agenda on Capitol
Hill has never been more
important.
As REALTORS® meet with Members of Congress
and United States
Senators they will bring the
message “A Housing Recovery
Unlocks the Economy.” A full economic recovery is
impossible without a housing recovery leaving the
way.
The
2009 REALTOR® Legislative
Agenda
- Move the Housing Market Forward and Safeguard Our Communities
by:
- Restructuring Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac: The federal
government must have a continued key role to ensure capital for mortgage lending
throughout all mortgage markets and in all market
conditions.
- FHA &
GSE Loan Limits: Congress
should make permanent the 2008 loan limit formula and loan limit
cap.
- Homebuyer Tax
Credit: Congress
should expand the $8000 first-time homebuyer tax credit to include all
homebuyers at all income
levels.
- Preserve the Mortgage Interest
Deduction: NAR opposes any changes to
current law. The MID is a remarkably effective tool that facilitates
homeownership and community stability. More than 75% of homeowners
utilize the deduction over the period they own their
home.
- Enact Health Care Coverage for
the Self-Employed and Small Businesses: NAR urges
Congress to pass health care reform legislation that addresses the inequities
faced by the self-employed and small businesses in the nation’s health insurance
delivery system.
- Adopt Reasonable Approaches
to Energy Efficiency: NAR supports
commercially reasonable, incentive-based approaches to help our nation’s
commercial and residential buildings become more energy efficient. NAR strongly
opposes energy labeling requirements which are imposed at time of sale or impose
undue economic burdens on property owners or
managers.
- Stabilize and Provide Liquidity to Commercial Real Estate
Markets: The freeze
in our nation’s credit
markets has adversely affected commercial and investment real estate. Property
owners seeking to refinance existing loans, including land and residential
development loans, are finding access to credit limited. Restoration of the
orderly functioning of financial markets is
essential.
- NAR
supports an expansion of the duration of loans offered to
investors, by the Federal Reserve through the
Term Asset-Backed-Securities Loan Facility (TALF), from the current 3-year term
to at least five years to better accommodate the longer loan terms of commercial
mortgages. (Most commercial mortgages have a loan term of seven to 10
years).
- NAR supports the
retention of current capital gains
rates.
Additional information about NAR’s Legislative and
Regulatory Advocacy efforts is available at: www.realtor.org/governmentaffairs.
For more
information about the Mid-year Meeting visit:
www.realtor.org/govaffmidyear.