NAR’s Deputy Chief Lobbyist addresses crowd of Realtors® in Harrisburg

With 168 days until the general election and only 44 legislative days scheduled for Congress, the looming presidential election has already shifted the legislative agenda.

Jamie Gregory, deputy chief lobbyist for the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), gave a federal legislative update to Realtors® attending the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors® Spring Business Meetings yesterday in Harrisburg.

Gregory said more than 8,500 Realtors® from across the country attending NAR’s Legislative Meetings earlier this month in Washington, D.C. and had successful meetings with legislators and federal regulatory agencies.

The top NAR legislative priorities discussed with legislators included:

• HR 4893, the “Risk Management and Homeownership Stability Act,” which would prohibit the use of guarantee fees (G-fees) from being extended, increased and diverted for unrelated government spending. Last year, a bill proposed allowing these fees to be used to fund transportation and Realtors® responded to NAR’s call for action telling Congress that G-fees should be limited to funding housing.
• HR 3700, the “Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act,” which would make reforms to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) condominium loan program, federal assisted housing programs and Rural Housing Service loan programs. The bill would reduce the FHA condo owner occupancy ratio to 35 percent, directs FHA to streamline the condo recertification process and provides more flexibility for mixed use buildings. This bill unanimously passed the House. Gregory said the bill will allow lenders to be certified like they are for other lending programs and it should expedite the lending process.
• HR 2901, the “Flood Insurance Market Parity and Modernization Act,” would clarify that property owners may satisfy the mandatory flood insurance purchase with either a NFIP policy or private insurance, ensure that consumers can move freely between NFIP and private insurance coverage without penalty, preserve NFIP as a viable choice and maintain important consumer disclosures. This bill unanimously passed the House.

Gregory said, “This is not a silver bullet to solve the problem of increasing flood insurance rates but it is a first step to move private insurance into the market to determine if it will work.”

Gregory noted that 2017 could produce the perfect storm for tax reform, housing finance reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program, which expires in September of 2017. “Tax reform may not be comprehensive but we need to watch possible changes,” he added.

NAR will work to maintain the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) and maintaining it for second homes which impacts a large number of real estate markets throughout the country.

In addition, the association will strive to retain Like-Kind Exchanges in future tax reform proposals. NAR believes repealing the like-kind exchange provision would be counter-productive to economic growth and job creation with little gain in revenue.