To avoid foreclosures in the continuing housing market crisis, the FHA has been given permission to insure up to $300 billion in new loans, as long as lenders are willing to cooperate with home loan modification programs. The funds and expanded authority were granted to the FHA under the recently passed Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

The Act also includes nearly $15 billion in housing tax breaks, including valuable tax incentives for first-time homebuyers. But American consumers faced with troublesome mortgage payments are most exited about the home loan modification programs that will allow the FHA to basically assume responsibility for bad loans and borrowers and refinance them into new, FHA-insured 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. To participate in the emergency program banks and mortgage companies have to voluntarily agree to do loan modifications and mortgage rewrites to make sure that homeowners do not owe more than the current market value of their houses. In return for the write-downs and more user-friendly terms, borrowers agree to share potential profits from future sales of their homes with the FHA. That helps to offset the financial burden on taxpayers by reducing the overall cost of the initiative.

When Congress passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 during the summer, it did so by a wide bipartisan margin but the Bush administration promised to veto it. The president backed down and signed the bill, however, once it reached his desk.

Since the bill passed the economy has worsened, and the entire world faces one of the worst financial crises in history. Some homeowners worried that the big $700 billion rescue plan might overshadow the FHA loan modification project, but representatives of the FHA have reassured them that everything is still on track. That is great news for homeowners needing to refinance before banks take away their homes, and the loan modification plan is scheduled to continue at least for the next 2-3 years.

By: Tom Kerr