government affairs blog

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Our friends at ALTA put up the "good fight" to protect our interests in Washington, but their ability to keep our issues moving forward often depend  on the general political climate and the issues that "Absolutely Must" be addressed -- because those tend to crowd the more mundane issues of keeping the real estate economy on track.

I found the attached article from the Washington Post to provide an interesting guide to some of the hot button issues that must be resolved before the election.  

Hope you enjoy!

If your office is not already using E-Recording, we urge you to take another look at it.   Not only can it save time and money, it dramatically reduces the "Gap" and the risk of several types of fraud.

On Friday afternoon (6/15/12), FHFA released proposed rules (again) restricting Fannie & Freddie from holding mortgages on properties encumbered by Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans.   PACE loans have been authorized in Florida for several years and recently over $2 Billion of PACE bonds were approved. 

Here are the key provisions of the proposed rule:  

(a) The Enterprises [Fannie/Freddie] shall immediately take such as actions as are necessary to secure and/or preserve their right to make immediately due the full amount of any obligation secured by a mortgage that becomes, without the consent of the mortgage holder, subject to a first-lien PACE obligation. Such actions may include, to the extent necessary, interpreting or amending the Enterprises’ Uniform Security Instruments.

(b) The Enterprises shall not purchase any mortgage that is subject to a first lien PACE obligation.

(c) The Enterprises shall not consent to the imposition of a first-lien PACE obligation on any mortgage.

The entire Federal Register report can be found here

More here.

The Federal Housing Administration will sell 5,000 mortgages in the foreclosure process every quarter beginning in September to give borrowers more options to stay in their homes than government programs currently allow.

The inventory of repossessed homes held by the Department of Housing and Urban Development reached a three-year low because of servicing and foreclosure delays. But the more than 707,000 severely delinquent FHA-backed mortgages hovered around a record high since the start of the year.

How will your company capitalize on this opportunity?

More from Housing Wire

Here's a link to the Story. 

As some of you are aware, both FLTA and ALTA have been monitoring this issue closely.   The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has lapsed eleven times since Sept. 30, 2008.  (12 counting this week)   Each lapse has delayed thousands of closings and caused considerable uncertainty for buyers, sellers and lenders. These disruptions cost title and escrow businesses’, lenders’, and consumers’ time, money and unnecessary worry.

What is less widely known, is that earlier this month, FLTA sent a delegation of 10 of our members to Washington DC to join the ALTA team in visiting legislators to express our concern that the NFIP might lapse again.  

We expect another short-term extension of the program.  Months ago, the House of Representatives passed a five year extension of the NFIP by a bi-partisan majority; the Senate declined to vote on the long term extension.  Two weeks ago, seeing no action on the Senate side and knowing the deadline was fast approaching, the House approved a 30 day extension of the program.   Last week, the Senate approved a 60 day extension.   

We are in a position where the bills from both sides must be reconciled, voted on and sent to the President for signature.   We are cautiously optimistic that this will be completed before May 31 so that there is not another lapse in the program.

Our thanks to Aaron for carrying this important message (albeit in a highly edited form) to the public.