REGIONAL REALTOR® Luncheon Featuring US Senator Bob Corker
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
11.30am
Franklin Marriott at Cool Springs
700 Cool Springs Blvd.
Franklin, TN 37067
Registration Form (pdf)
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United States Senator, Bob Corker (R) Tennessee will be meeting with REALTORS®from Middle Tennessee on Thursday, February 19th to discuss the housing market, economy, and proposed economic stimulus package. This luncheon is open to REALTORS®, please submit your registration form and payment to WCAR to reserve your space. On your registration form, there is an opportunity to submit a question or comment for Senator Corker.
Background Information on Issues:
Economic Stimulus Package:
- H.R. 1 - Economic Stimulus Package Approved by the House of Representatives on January 28, 2009
- H.R.1424
Title: A bill to provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes.
- Backgrounder on the Economic Stimulus Plan (New York Times, January 27, 2009)
Senator Bob Corker:
Bob Corker grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended public schools, played sports, and from an early age learned to love and value hard work. He took his first job at age 13 picking up trash and spent his teenage years bagging ice, working at the Western Auto and putting in long hours as a construction laborer.
Bob graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1974 with a degree in Industrial Management, and after working four years as a construction superintendent, he started his own construction company with $8,000. The company grew as it quickly gained a reputation for meeting deadlines on time and under budget and eventually expanded to operations in 18 states. Over time, Bob’s business interests evolved to acquiring and developing commercial real estate.
In 2001, Bob was elected mayor of Chattanooga. He transformed Chattanooga’s waterfront – attracting $2.1 billion of investment to revitalize the city, implemented merit bonus pay for teachers which dramatically raised student achievement in some of the city’s most challenged schools, and worked with local law enforcement officials to cut violent crime in half.
On November 7, 2006, Bob Corker was elected to serve the people of Tennessee in the United States Senate. He is a member of the Senate Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Energy and Natural Resources; Foreign Relations; Small Business and Entrepreneurship; and the Special Committee on Aging.
Bob and his wife, Elizabeth, have been married for 22 years and have two daughters, Julia and Emily. The Corker family lives in Chattanooga.
Bob Corker in the Senate:
Priorities:
Committee Assignments:
NAR/REALTOR 4-point plan:
Our nation is facing an unprecedented lack of liquidity throughout every sector of the economy. This has placed insurmountable barriers in the path of too many homeowners wishing to avoid foreclosure and save their home and home buyers wishing to take advantage of the low mortgage rate environment and realize the American dream of owning a home. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® believes it is imperative that Congress take action and restore consumer confidence in homeownership. We are calling on Congress to enact measures that address foreclosures, stabilize housing and real estate, energize credit markets, restore bank lending capacity and revitalize the economy.
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Make the $7500 first-time homebuyer tax credit available to all buyers, eliminate the repayment requirements and extend the credit to December 31, 2009. In July 2008 Congress passed legislation creating a refundable tax credit for first-time homebuyers. The $7500 credit is in effect for purchases between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009. Consumers have shown little interest in the credit, in large part because it is not available to all purchasers and because, unlike other credits, this tax credit must be repaid.
View NAR's First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Survey Results>
Restore the FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac maximum loan limits to $729,750 and make them permanent. The economic stimulus loan limits for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and FHA expired on December 31, 2008. As a result, the maximum limit for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA dropped from $729,750 to $625,500. Returning these limits to their 2008 levels and making them permanent will strengthen the availability of mortgage credit and expand mortgage affordability in a time when home sales and refinance activity are necessary to stabilize the housing market and move the broader economy towards recovery. This will also assure that a wide range of borrowers have access to fair and affordable mortgages.
Get Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) back on track and target more funds to mortgage relief. Create a federal mortgage interest buy-down program to bring down interest rate spreads to historical averages and reduce mortgage interest rates. It is crucial that the government continue its actions to bring down interest rate spreads between mortgage and Treasury rates to historical norms which will significantly reduce mortgage interest rates. Recent actions by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury are making mortgage interest rates more affordable. Mortgage rates are near 50-year lows but the spread between mortgage rates and Treasury rates are abnormally high. If rates drop in line with historic trends, home sales could rise nationally by 10 to 15 percent and stabilize prices in many parts of the country. While this is a good boost, mortgages need to be more attainable. There continues to be continuing problems impeding the delivery of mortgage credit to home buyers and those trying to avoid foreclosure. The federal government must step in and address these problems.
Corrective actions that NAR is advocating include:
- The Treasury Department should provide additional TARP funds to make added loans for housing, establish foreclosure prevention programs, modify more mortgage loans to prevent foreclosures to the maximum extent possible, establish an efficient and effective short sales process, or a combination of these activities.
- All mortgage lenders, their servicers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and investors in mortgage assets should adopt and implement aggressive policies that result in more mortgage loan modifications to prevent as many foreclosures as possible. Where sustaining homeownership is not possible, these entities should facilitate short sales that will benefit all parties.
- Mortgage lenders and private mortgage insurers should (1) reexamine underwriting standards to determine whether they have over-corrected in response to abuses in the mortgage market, and (2) remove unnecessarily strict underwriting standards (such as requiring excessively high credit scores that result in qualified borrowers being arbitrarily denied a loan).
- Consumer reporting agencies (credit bureaus) should improve compliance with the Fair Credit Act, including prompt responses to consumers who seek to correct files and errors.
- The FHA should make investors eligible to participate in its Section 203(k) Rehabilitation Loan Program to help dispose of large numbers of vacant foreclosed properties for rehabilitation and conversion to homeownership. Additionally, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should increase their selling guide ceilings on investor loans to facilitate investor participation in the housing recovery.
- Congress should oppose the imposition of fees or increased fees by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that translate into major new costs on homebuyers and homeowners seeking fair and affordable mortgage loans.
- FHASecure, which helped more than 450,000 families modify their mortgages and stay in their homes before it was sunset, should be reinstated. In addition, reforms to the Hope for Homeowners program should be made to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.