Senate leaders agree on housing legislation

[MidnightVoice]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23922370/

"Senate leaders announced an agreement Wednesday on legislation to ease the slumping housing market and help millions of families threatened by foreclosure.

The scaled-back proposal released by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky contains an amalgam of ideas aimed at boosting demand for housing and helping homeowners saddled with subprime mortgages avoid foreclosure.

For instance, the plan contains $4 billion in grants to local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed homes, new authority for states to issue bonds to be used to refinance subprime mortgages and a $7,000 tax credit for people buying new homes or properties in foreclosure."

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Message Edited by masdeocho on 04-03-2008 04:23 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

I think they could make a big start by simply canceling pre-payment penalties. This isn't a bail-out and it wouldn't cripple lenders; this would just allow consumers to go get a better mortgage. It might even cause lenders to scramble around and come up with better deals to hang on to the customers that they so successfully milked.