President Obama has unveiled his second-term housing agenda, which includes initiatives to support current homeowners, families hoping to buy their first home and the one-third of American households that rent. The plan has six basic pillars:
- Help more homeowners refinance to today’s low interest rates;
- Clarify and streamline regulations to help more creditworthy homebuyers get a mortgage
- Spur demand for homes by fixing our immigration system;
- Rebuild communities hit hard by the housing crisis;
- Ensure that decent, affordable rental homes are available to people who cannot or choose not to own; and
- Wind down the government-supported mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and establish a more responsible system of housing finance in the U.S.
You’ll notices that some of these proposals, namely the refinancing plan and some aspects of the neighborhood revitalization plan, are carry-overs from Obama’s first term.
But there were also a few landmark announcements in the president’s speech and accompanying fact sheet.
Read the four big announcements and full report here.
