The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) announced its support February 3, 2009 for new legislation introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., that is designed to ease loan modifications and improve refinancing options for homeowners facing foreclosure by revamping the HOPE for Homeowners program.

The legislation, H.R. 703, is expected to make the program more lender-friendly, while preserving the benefits to homeowners. It would also limit risks to the FHA fund and to the American taxpayer.

The legislation would also provide access to Troubled Asset Relief Program funds for small institutions and community banks and encourage additional actions to expand mortgage funding capacity in the primary market.

NAR also continues its push to enact legislation that will help stabilize and stimulate the housing market. Its four-point plan, introduced in November, is designed to spur home sales and stem the rapid rise in foreclosures by lowering mortgage interest rates and unclogging the credit market, extending the home buyer tax credit, making the increased loan limits permanent, and increasing liquidity in the both the commercial and residential real estate market.

National Public Radio reported February 3, 2009 that the HOPE program has gone largely unused.