Buyer’s Choice Realty blog

President Bush signed into law today the oft-debated housing bill that recently passed through the House of Representatives on July 23 (vote was 272-152) and the Senate on July 26 (vote was 72-13). Many were pessimistic about the possibility this bill would make it through both sides of Congress - specifically the Senate, where most Republicans threatened to vote against it, but Bush changed his stance and decided not to veto the bill.

There are many implications for the housing market as a result of this bill being signed into law, and many are calling it the most important piece of legislation for our country in a generation. This remains to be seen, but many changes will be happening over the next few days and weeks. For more specifics, you can do a web search of the title of this post, or you can read the final version of the bill here.

David Herszenhorn wrote about the House of Representatives’ recent passing vote on the housing bill that has been in the news quite a bit. This bill was primarily authored by Barney Frank of my home state of Massachusetts. You can read about the bill and its potential pros and cons at The New York Times‘ website.

Why should you care about this bill? Your tax dollars are funding parts of it, but that’s nothing new. What is new is that some of those dollars will be paying for cities and towns to buy and refurbish foreclosed homes. Is this a good or a bad thing? Here’s what the author wrote:

The White House, citing an urgent need to restore market confidence in the two mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said President Bush would sign the measure despite his opposition to the inclusion of nearly $4 billion in grants for local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed properties.

Of course there are many other parts of this bill that will soon become law, so if you are interested in the housing market in this country you should learn about the bill. After all, housing is a major part of our economy. Will this be the first step in stopping the downward spiral of home prices?