You may have noticed that we try to watch and update you on market forces that affect the real estate market. I’ve just gotten off the phone with Congressman Al Green’s (Dem, TX) staff. Here is an important update on a bill that may heat up our market a bit.

(first…a little background)

HR 3221 – Housing Bill ends seller funded down payment assistance
As we all know, seller funded Down Payment Assistance (DPA) was done away with back in the middle of 2008 with the passage of the Housing Bill. The change took effect in the fall and a number of real estate professionals and sellers watched sadly as a number of buyers lost an important hand-up to buying a home. We were never sure by how many buyers were priced out of the market, but we knew it was happening.

HR 6694 – The resurrection of Down Payment Assistance
All of a sudden, we had hope that we might get a newly reconfigured version of DPA. It was proposed, passed committee hearings but never made it to a vote by the House, Senate or the President. We tracked HR 6694 for a couple of months but at some point we stopped reporting to you about it since it seemed to have stalled and was being overlooked in the context of the larger economic meltdown.

(and now the good news…)

NEW – HR 600!!!
Congressman Green is at it again! Just a few days ago, he introduced HR 600, a new bill to reinstate seller funded DPA. It is waiting to be put on the calendar for committee review and recommendation.If it clears committee, it will makes it way to a vote and hopefully become a law. (Be sure to click the previous link for the School House Rock cartoon that we all grew up with….fun to see again after all these years. Surprisingly effective too!)

It’s our understanding (from our conversation with Congressman Green’s office) that HR 600 is nearly the same as HR 6694 but with risk based pricing removed!

We’ll see how it goes. There is potential for amendments to take place between now and when it finally makes it to Obama’s desk.

We hope that you’re as happy to hear this news as we are! We’ll keep you posted when we learn of updates.