The legislation, the “Prompt Decision for Qualification for Short Sale Act of 2011,” was offered in Congress by U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and Robert Andrews (D-N.J.). “The current short sale process can be time-consuming and inefficient, and many would-be buyers end up walking away from a sale that could have saved a home owner from foreclosure,” said NAR President Ron Phipps.

“REALTORS® and consumers continue to raise issues about delays in the short sale process, because lenders are unable to decide whether to approve a short sale. After many months of delays, and with no response from lenders, potential buyers are losing patience and cancelling their contracts, often resulting in the property entering foreclosure. A short sale minimizes the negative impact on sellers and generally costs the lender less than a foreclosure,” said Phipps.

NAR has been actively pushing the lending industry to improve the process for approving short sales, which represent about 13 percent of recent home sales according to NAR data. Phipps praised Reps. Rooney and Andrews for their efforts on the bill and urged Congress to pass the bill quickly.

“As the leading advocate for home ownership and housing issues, REALTORS want to help more home owners avoid foreclosure by facilitating a short sale when a family is absolutely unable to keep their home; however, that can only happen if lenders and servicers approve short sale offers in a reasonable amount of time,” said Phipps. “Streamlining short sales transactions will reduce the amount of time it takes to sell the property, improve the likelihood that the transaction will close and reduce the overall number of foreclosures. This benefits sellers, lenders, buyers, and the entire community.

-NAR

Testifying before a Senate panel today, National Association of REALTORS® President Ron Phipps told members of Congress that sustainable home ownership must be the goal when considering future federal housing policies.

“As the leading advocate for home ownership, NAR wants to ensure public policies that promote responsible, sustainable home ownership and that any changes to current programs and incentives don’t jeopardize a housing and economic recovery,” Phipps told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Phipps said the housing market is starting to see signs of recovery; however, the real issue facing the nation right now is that many Americans can’t find meaningful work to support their families, and housing is essential to creating jobs.

“Home ownership is a pillar of our economy; our research suggests that home sales in this country generate more than 2.5 million private-sector jobs in an average year. For every two homes sold, a job is created,” Phipps said.

He added that, while housing alone may not pull America out of this stalled economy, hampering its recovery will severely and negatively impact the nation’s recovery.

“Owning a home contributes to the strength of the nation’s economy and is still one of the best ways for individuals to build long-term wealth; therefore, we need public policies that support home ownership. Making it harder for families to afford safe mortgages does not further the goal of a housing or economic recovery,” he said.

Phipps agreed that reforms are required to prevent a recurrence of the housing market meltdown, but raising fees and increasing down payment requirements for well-qualified, creditworthy borrowers places an unnecessary burden on many families, especially those in high-cost urban markets.

“Home buyers need a wide variety of traditionally safe, well-underwritten products with flexible down payment requirements, said Phipps. “Overly stringent requirements will turn away 10 to 15 percent of otherwise qualified buyers who have a demonstrable ability to repay – that’s approximately 500,000 home sales that won’t happen, further delaying the housing and economic recovery.”

“We need to keep housing first on the nation’s public policy agenda to ensure that housing and national economic recoveries are sustained, and that anyone in this country who aspires to own a home and can afford to do so is not denied the opportunity to build their future through home ownership,” Phipps said.

The National Association of REALTORS®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

REALTOR® is a registered collective membership mark which may be used only by real estate professionals who are members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and subscribe to its strict Code of Ethics. Not all real estate agents are REALTORS®. All REALTORS® are members of NAR.

2011 Best Old House Neighborhoods for College Towns: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20469476_20917210,00.html

Gallatin Count Fairgrounds: Wild West WinterFest. For a schedule of events, go to: http://www.gallatin.mt.gov/Public_Documents/gallatincomt_fairgrounds/WildWestWinterFest

Montana State University: 29th International Food Bizarre. More than 150 MSU international students from more than 25 countries will prepare and sell food from their native countries at the 29th MSU International Street Food Bazaar set for 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, in the MSU SUB Ballrooms.

Museum of the Rockies: Bring the family for this incredible exhibit featuring 15 species of exotic live frogs from around the globe. February 15th – September 5th.  www.museumoftherockies.com

Housing starts in January were helped by a 77.7 percent jump in multi-family homes. Single-family home construction, on the other hand, fell 1 percent. Meanwhile, new home completions dropped to a record low of 512,000 units in January, falling 9.5 percent from the previous month.

And after housing permits surged in December by 15.3 percent, housing permits for future housing projects sank in January. New building permits dropped 10.4 percent to a 562,000-unit pace in January–mostly pulled down by a drop in multi-family and single-family unit permits.

Source: “US Housing Starts Surge in Jan., Permits Tumble’ Reuters News (Feb. 16th, 2011)

HB 16 was on the Montana Association of REALTORS® legislative agenda heading into the 2011 session, and MAR testified against the legislation. Not only would the bill have disclosed personal financial information, it would not have lessened the “sticker shock” that comes with the current reappraisal process and only information on the Realty Transfer Certificate would be used. Whole segments of the economy are exempt from the RTC process, most notably of these are agriculture and forestlands. It would not have been fair that these transactions would have been excluded from the requirement to reveal sales price data when homeowners would have been so required.