H.R. 3044 … Call to Action…
U.S. Representative Travis Chiders from Mississippi has sponsored with 37 co sponsors House Bill 3044 which calls for an 18 month moratorium on the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. The bill, sucinctly states:
SECTION 1. MORATORIUM ON THE HOME VALUATION CODE OF CONDUCT.
During the 18-month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency on December 23, 2008, shall have no force or effect.
No one from Arizona has co sponsored the bill. The bill effectively puts a moratorium on Andrew Cuomo’s call for Appraisal Management Companies (AMC) and allows time to develop rules and regulations governing the appraisal industry.
As well as lenders, Realtors, and Wall Street, the appraisal industry has also been cited as a cause of the economic melt down. It is alleged that appraisers were given a “target price” to meet by lenders which over valued the property and contributed to “loan fraud”. Ironically, many of the large Appraisal Management Companies are subsidiaries or sister companies of the large banks which are currently underwriting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. These are the types of loans governed by the Home Valuation Code of Conduct.
Tom Heath, in his blog post Saturday, takes the Federal Housing Finance Agency to task and its Director, James Lockhart, for knowing little about the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. Heath is President elect of the Southern Arizona Mortgage Lenders Assocation and was guest blogger at this site last week. With his permission, I am reposting Heath’s comments.
Anyone concerned with real estate should take time to read this post and contact state representatives to support House Bill 3044 calling for the mortatorium on the Home Valuation Code of Conduct.
Resources:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-30
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3044
Tags: Real Estate Appraisals, Real Estate Legislation, Tucson Real Estate