US senators are working on a rescue package for troubled homeowners which could help revive the country’s real estate market. The Senate’s banking committee approved a plan that would see the availability of government-insured mortgages expanded in a bid to bail out hundreds of thousands of people threatened by foreclosure.
The New York Times reports the Republican Bush administration has suggested it could consider the idea because it involves no direct cost to taxpayers. Quoted by the paper, banking, housing and urban affairs committee chairman Christopher Dodd said:
“The primary goal here is to keep people in their homes, but also to establish a floor, a bottom to all this.”
If approved the new bill would create an affordable-housing fund which would provide about $500 million (£254 million) towards helping foreclosure-hit homes in its first 12 months.
White House experts are said to be keen to see more of the bill’s detail and welcomed the efforts being made. Earlier this week online real estate auction site RealtyBid reported interest in foreclosures was fuelling a sharp rise in its visitor numbers. Site president Tony Isbell said
“We are definitely seeing a growing number of people looking for real estate bargains. The swell of bank-owned foreclosure properties populating the majority of our website is a huge appeal to real estate bargain hunters.”
According to Isbell, In April RealtyBid attracted 630,000 unique visitors, its highest ever amount in a single month.
Related posts:
