Monday, July 18th, 2011In a major victory for REALTORS®, Governor Brown signed into law a C.A.R.-sponsored bill, Senate Bill 458, prohibiting a deficiency after a short sale for one-to-four residential units, regardless of whether the lender is a senior or junior lienholder. Effective immediately for transactions closing escrow from this day forward, both senior and junior lienholders [...]
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Tuesday the House of Representatives passed a five year re authorization of the National Flood Insurance Program by a vote of 406-22 (HR 1309). This major step forward was due in great part to REALTORS® being heard on this issues and contacting your Representative. Locally Congresswoman Matsui was very active on this legislation. She [...] President Obama signed a law that removed the expanded “1099” reporting requirement which was enacted as part of the health care legislation last year. H.R. 4 was authored by local Congressman Dan Lungren. This legislation is a big win for small businesses and landlords. H.R. 4 came as the result of a caveat in [...] The Senate passed a bill yesterday to repeal a tax-reporting requirement (known as the 1099 provision) for small businesses, including landlords, in the 2010 health care overhaul law. The bill will now go to the president’s desk where he is expected to sign it into law. The provision would have required millions of businesses [...] The House could vote this week on legislation to repeal small business Form 1099 reporting requirements that were enacted in health care reform and landlord reporting requirements that were enacted in small business legislation last year. NAR supports repeal to save its members from overly burdensome tracking and reporting requirements. Under the provisions, property [...] Newly-elected Gov. Jerry Brown released his proposed budget which extends previous tax increases and makes $12.5 billion in cuts to state programs to close the $25.4 billion state deficit over the next 18 months. Gov. Brown would like the Legislature to approve his spending cuts prior to a special election on extending tax increases. This proposed special election could happen as soon as June. The full state budget would be passed after this special election. The non-partisan Legislative Analysts Office has reviewed this proposal and reports it is a very good starting point. The plan does not use the budget gimmicks of the past several years which dug the state into its current hole of over-projecting revenue and borrowing from Program A to pay for Program B. Among the many cuts proposed, Gov. Brown includes limiting Medi-Cal services to six prescriptions per month (excluding life saving medications), ten doctor visits per year, and setting a $5 co pay for services. Other cuts include Cal Works, welfare-to-work, and cuts to the CSU and UC. Tax extensions in the special election include the one percent sales tax increase and the ½ percent vehicle license fee increase. These two extensions are expected to raise $5.9 billion. Brown is also asking voters to continue the ¼ percent income tax increase. These are the current tax rates California residents are paying, which were set to expire at the end of June. The increases were approved in a 2009 budget deal. Much is still unknown about the vote count needed to pass a proposed budget. In the November 2010 election, voters passed Proposition 25, requiring only a simple majority of legislators to approve a state budget rather than the previously required two-thirds supermajority. Some of the reductions Gov. Brown has proposed, including cuts to welfare and higher education, may still require a two-thirds vote despite Prop. 25, which states that laws can be changed by a majority vote only after a complete budget plan is approved. But as proposed, the budget is passed after the changes in law are made. These details of Prop. 25 and the proposed budget are still being sorted out, and it may take several months to get a final decision. On December 1, 2010, Fannie Mae announced an update to its selling guide that provides a new option to fund energy-efficient home upgrades while maintaining Fannie Mae’s principles of borrower sustainability. All Fannie Mae loan products are permitted to include the energy improvement feature excluding certain refinance loans. Eligible borrowers will be allowed to [...] Throughout 2010, NAR made significant progress educating Congress and the Obama Administration that a stable and sustainable housing market is the primary building block for any economic recovery. NAR had a series of successes in the regulatory and legislative fields, some of which are highlighted below. As we look ahead to 2011, NAR will [...]  Legislatively, it’s looking to be a positive year for REALTORS® in California. The second year of the Legislature’s two-year session wrapped up in early September, and we have three sponsored bills sitting on the Governor’s desk as of this writing. Senate Bill 1178 (Corbett) will extend anti-deficiency protections to homeowners who have refinanced “purchase money” loans and are now facing foreclosure. C.A.R. sponsored this critical piece of legislation to protect homeowners in foreclosure from attempts by lenders to sue the homeowners for the difference between the value of the foreclosed property and the outstanding balance on the mortgage loan. California has protected borrowers from so called “deficiency” liability on their home mortgages since the 1930s, but the evolution of mortgage finance requires that the statute be updated. Current law says if a homeowner defaults on a mortgage used to purchase their home, the homeowner’s liability on the mortgage is limited to the property itself. The 1930s law does not extend the protection for purchase money mortgages to loans that re-financed the original purchase debt – even if the refinance was only to gain a lower interest rate. Recent years of low interest rates have induced tens of thousands of homeowners to refinance their mortgages, yet almost no one realized that by re-financing their mortgage to obtain a lower rate, they were forfeiting their protections. These borrowers became personally liable for the balance of the loan. Should the Governor sign SB 1178 into law it would correct this deficiency, protecting people who refinanced their home for a lower interest rate, without taking any money out of their home. Senate Bill 1427 (Price) would require local governments to provide the owner of a foreclosed property a notice of violation for overgrown weeds, broken windows, or other similar problems, and an opportunity to correct those violations before imposing a fine or penalty. Costs of nuisance abatement measures, if provided by local government, should the property owner not make those repairs themselves, must not exceed the actual and reasonable costs of nuisance abatement. Currently, some local governments are imposing civil fines and penalties up to $1,000 per day for failure to maintain a vacant property. Properties need to be maintained so as to not to cause blight, bringing down the value of an entire neighborhood. An extremely high rate of fines will deter buyers from purchasing, fixing and getting these homes occupied, which is the ultimate goal. Should Governor Schwarzenegger sign this bill, it will be a good compromise for all parties involved, On Thursday, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 1178 (Corbett), C.A.R.’s sponsored bill that would have expanded anti-deficiency protections. In his veto message, the Governor made clear his view that the bill interferes with an existing contract. While disappointed in the Governor’s misinterpretation of the bill, C.A.R. is grateful to the almost 13,000 California REALTORS(R) who [...] |
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