When the Senate passed its version of the economic stimulus bill earlier this week, people in the industry were concerned because it didn’t include a provision to raise the HECM loan limit. Yesterday, members of the U.S. House and Senate participated in a conference committee to work out the compromise for the stimulus package.
According to an email that RMD received from Peter Bell, President of NRMLA, the committee saw fit to retain the House language which adjusts the maximum claim limit for HECMs to "150% of the Freddie Mac limit," currently that would be $625,500, for the balance of this year.
Over the next few days the conference report must be accepted by votes in both the House and Senate. Then, the bill can be sent to President Obama for his signature.
There are many questions about how this will be implemented; the most asked one, of course, being, "when?" There are no answers to this yet. A lot has to be done to implement this new law. It is several hundred pages and affects every aspect of our economy, including many areas, besides HECM, that HUD will have to implement.
To ensure that your company is kept up to date on how the economic stimulus bill is implemented, make sure your company is a NRMLA member. Its delegates are kept updated through timely and detailed memoranda at strategic points while policy decisions get made. All members of the industry are invited to become members and receive this information and insight. For info, check out www.nrmalonline.org.
