Fighting Fannie/Freddie’s Declining Markets Policies

MORe staff worked closely with NAR Financial Services Manager Jeff Lischer earlier this month urging an NAR response to several recent policies enacted by Fannie/Freddie. Policies which, when taken as a whole, are crippling our local marketplace. Today, NAR released the following statement in a Government Affairs Directors newsletter. MORe will continue to advocate on your behalf to roll back Fannie/Freddie policies to encourage a healthy housing market.

NAR RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT FANNIE AND FREDDIE POLICIES

On April 11, 2008, NAR President Dick Gaylord wrote letters to Fannie Mae CEO Dan Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Dick Syron to raise serious concerns about a range of Fannie and Freddie policies that, taken as a whole, are hurting the entire national economy, not just the housing and mortgage markets. REALTORS® think there has been an overreaction by the GSEs and others in the housing finance industry that, even in the short term and certainly in the long term, will cause harm to the organizations involved by delaying recovery of the housing and mortgage markets.  Many small individual policy decisions designed to keep the enterprises financially sound, when layered one upon another, have created major impediments to healthy mortgage and housing markets.  
The letters address three main areas of concern:

1.  A wide variety of higher fees and other underwriting standards that make mortgages much less affordable.
2.  Policies reducing maximum loan-to-value ratios (LTVs) by five percentage points for homes in declining markets.
3.  Extremely tight underwriting standards for jumbo conforming loans authorized by the Economic Stimulus Act.
To view the NAR Letter to Fannie Mae, please click here: http://fedistrk.nsf/files/Letter_Fannie_Policies_ 04112008.pdf/$FILE/Letter_Fannie_Policies_ 04112008.pdf  
To view the NAR Letter to Freddie Mac, please click here:
http://fedistrk.nsf/files/Letter_Freddie_Policies_ 04112008.pdf/$FILE/Letter_Freddie_Policies_ 04112008.pdf

Fire Sprinklers Considered in Hinsdale

Home builders in Hinsdale have contacted MORe to join a coalition in opposition to a mandatory fire sprinkler ordinance.  MORe already has a policy which calls for governments to make sprinklers an option for homeowners and not a mandate.  I have attached the two advertisements the builders might be running in the local Hinsdalean as well as their talking points. (staff has not yet fact-checked the builders claims, but they appear to be generally on target)

Municipal Key Contacts Program Starts

Committee members agreed to begin a new “Key Contact” program for our local municipalities. “Key Contacts” are used by IAR and NAR for our legislative officials; attending fund raisers, maintaining regular contact, taking the lead at Capitol Conference and all Calls-to-Action requests. MORe is replicating that system with our local municipalites.  First on our list, of course, are home rule communities.  MORe staff is happy to announce the following members have volunteered to serve as the contacts: Dennis Secara­ – Downers Grove, Ray Donahue – Wheaton, Annette Akey – Carol Stream, Colleen Wilcox – Hinsdale and Burr Ridge.  Any MORe members who wish to be considered for a Municipal Key Contact position should contact Chairman Mary Anne D’Ambrosio or GAD Jeff Merrinette.

Downers Grove Affordable Housing Testimony

MORe staff delivered testimony to the Downers Grove City Council on the issue of affordable housing on April 22.  GAD Merrinette’s testimony centered on research which demonstrates that there is a more than adequate supply of housing in the $200,000 to $300,000 price range within Downers Grove.  The mission of the Housing Ad Hoc was to determine a price range and availability issues, essentially to define the problem.  Data collected by Chairman D’Ambrosio, Dennis Secara, and GAD Merrinette demonstrated that there was a variety and ample supply of housing across the spectrum of prices, both in attached and detached housing.  Affordable housing is included in our MORe critical goal #2 and has been the subject of a task force at IAR.  GAD Merrinette reminded the Council that Mainstreet is firmly committed to affordable/attainable housing. GAD Merrinette has a housing tool kit to share with the City Council when this issue ripens.  GAD Merrinette has also discussed this issue with Member Megan Schroeder (experienced DG resident and member of the Ad Hoc Housing Committee) and we have agreed to blend our efforts to bring the best representation forward for REALTORS® and homeowners. The Downers Grove Reporter and the Chicago Tribune both covered this meeting.