Senator Jeff Merkley on "Paving the Way to a Healthy Housing Market"

From Conference yesterday, Courtesy of New American Foundation and the National Conference of La Raza; includes outline and video of Merkley remarks. 

YouTube video is HERE and embedded below: 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Merkley Housing Plan.

PR is HERE; PDF file with plan is HERE.

The Hill summary of the plan is HERE. 

Liked the $5,000 first time homebuyer tax credit, but if it isn't revenue neutral would appear there needs to be a source of funding to pay for it (assuming some sort of PAYGO provision would apply). 

Also didn't see any mention of HUD budget or roles of FHA and GSE's, which are likely to be big political arguments in the coming year. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Merkley Questions at Yesterday's Senate Banking Committee Hearing on Foreclosures.

Video is HERE.

Start playing video and then move slider  to 1:38  to hear his questions and responses from Chase and Bank of America. (Note that you also can search transcript by keyword, for this search I used "Oregon").

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Video: NetRoots Nation Panel w Merkley: The Forgotten Foreclosure Crisis.

Includes  Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and possible Consumer Agency head Elizabeth Warren; full panel bios are HERE.

(Sound is screwed up at start so go into video for about 3 minutes to catch start of panel; Merkley portion starts about 9 minutes and 30 seconds)

Direct link to page with video is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Merkley Amendment to Senate Financial Reform Bill Tightens Lending Practices.

Last week the Senate adopted on a bipartisan 63-36 vote an amendment to the Senate financial reform bill cosponsored by Senator Merkely that tightens home lending practices.  PR from Merkley's website is HERE:

Senators Merkley and Klobuchar’s amendment will ban mortgage lenders and loan originators from accepting payments based on the interest rate or other terms of the loans.  In addition, it will require lenders to document income and other underwriting standards to ensure that borrowers’ can repay their loans.  This will end the damaging and deceptive practice of “no doc” and “liar loans.”

Text of actual amendment (SA 3962)  from Congressional Record is HERE and HERE.

The Thomas page for the Senate financial services reform bill (S.3217 ) is HERE.

The complete bill has yet to pass the Senate and if it does the Senate and House bills will need to be reconciled before the President can sign the legislation into law.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Updated: Merkley Pushes HUD Secretary /Administration to Do More on Foreclosure Problems.

Update: Senator Merkley's housing policy staffer Will White has provided me with a copy of the Redemption at Foreclosure bill that would allow a family to expedite the purchase of their home via a short sale in lieu of going through a purchase at foreclosure. The bill itself is HERE; a shorter Q and A about the bill is HERE.
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During a Senate Banking Committee hearing today on HUD legislative proposals, Oregon Senator Merkley urged HUD Secretary Donovan and the Obama Administration to 1.Look at his proposal to allow a family to buy back their home at foreclosure auction and 2. To play a more active role in facilitating short sales. (I am not aware of specifics of these proposals, if anyone has the details feel free to let me know).

The Senator also asked for continued innovative approaches and new tools to deal with the foreclosure and loan modification problems. My take is that the Senator did not seem satisfied by the responsiveness of the Secretary to his suggestions (and the Secretary did go in the weeds a bit).

Take a look yourself starting at 113:38 in the video (move the slider at the bottom of the video HERE to the right until you reach that value in left slide of the slider).

Other Senators at the hearing also pushed the Secretary on foreclosure and loan mod issues.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Senate Hearing: Merkley Asks HUD's Donovan About Homeownership Tax Credit Instead of Mortgage Interest Deduction.

At Tuesday's hearing on the state of housing markets Oregon Senator Merkley asked whether the Administration supports use of a homeowner tax CREDIT (instead of the current non refundable DEDUCTION that does not benefit lower income homeowners).

Secretary Donovan reminds Merkely of Obama's support for that idea during the campaign last year and says he will work with Merkley on the idea. (NOTE: This kind of an ongoing tax credit is different than the current ONE time first time home buyer tax credit, although that credit IS a refundable credit where the family gets cash back if they have no net tax liability).

Check out exchange in YouTube video I constructed below:



(A direct URL to this question and answer exchange on YouTube is HERE).

If you want to watch the entire 2 hour, 50 Minute hearing it's in the C-SPAN library HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Senate Banking Committee Hearing Today on Homeownership and Foreclosures with Merkley Questions.

Hearing webpage with written testimony is HERE.

Steaming (Flash) video is pasted HERE.

(Senator Merkley's questions begins at 92:22 in the video).

Jeff Merkley Gets Banking Committee Assignment.

Will be interesting to see what subcommittee he is assigned to.

BTW: Two weeks after new session opened, Merkely's Senate website HERE is almost void of useful information. Clue is that the link is titled " one item and teasers".