Illinois REALTORS® in Washington, D.C.

REALTORS® Address FHA, Commercial Markets and Mortgage Market Liquidity

Members of the Illinois Association of REALTORS® joined thousands of REALTORS® from across the nation in Washington, D.C. May 10-15 for the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) Midyear Legislative Meetings. IAR had scheduled meetings with members of Congress and government leaders to discuss issues important to the real estate industry.

Some if the issues include:

Strengthen the FHA mortgage insurance program, make permanent the higher FHA loan limits and exercise caution before considering additional proposals that may have a profound adverse impact on FHA programs that serve such a critical role for our nation’s families. According to NAR research, in 2009, more than 50 percent of first-time buyers used FHA, and nearly 80 percent of FHA’s purchase loans were to first-time homebuyers.
Adopt legislation that encourages the availability and affordability of property insurance, including a long-term reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and natural disaster coverage.
Take action to enhance liquidity in the commercial real estate market to avoid driving down economic recovery. Despite providing more than 9 million jobs and generating billions of dollars in tax revenue, commercial real estate is still in the midst of a serious financial crisis. Many property owners are underwater and will face serious trouble refinancing the $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans that will mature by 2014.
Enact legislation to restructure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) in a manner that provides the federal government with a continued role in the secondary market in order to ensure mortgage liquidity in all markets. REALTORS® believe the GSEs remain critical to ensuring mortgage market liquidity and will also work to enact legislation that makes permanent the higher GSE loan limit formula and caps in order to provide affordable financing for all borrowers in all markets.

IAR's Housing Policy Advisor Sharon Gorrell says: “Additionally, Illinois would like the Federal Housing Finance Agency and HUD to consider increasing the conforming FHA and GSE loan limits for high-cost, sub-areas in the state of Illinois. The loan limits have not been raised in Illinois despite the fact that select areas in Chicagoland have very high housing costs. The entire northern Illinois region is $417,000 for GSE conforming loans and $410,000 for FHA loans."

She adds: "In higher cost areas of the city of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, this has the potential of stymieing homeownership opportunities for thousands of homeseekers. Due to diminished liquidity and less favorable lending terms in the jumbo mortgage markets, higher agency lending limits are necessary in order to expand product options for both new home purchases and refinance of existing mortgages."

Learn more about these issues and view the schedule of Midyear events at www.realtor.org.