President Bush signed the Housing bill at 7 AM ET Wednesday morning to little if no fanfare.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and a couple of others were on hand to oversee the signing.
One can only surmise distaste of the bill on the part of the Republicans by the perfunctory manner in which such seminal legislation was passed by the White House. Not to mention the importance the legislation will play in helping the U.S. housing market, as well as the economy as a whole, in its attempt at recovery.
Leading up to the signing of the bill Republicans were objecting to the possibility of using taxpayer money to bail out the two GSEs (government sponsored enterprises) FNMA and Freddie Mac. $25 billion was the estimated amount of taxpayer money that may be required to bail out the two mortgage finance companies. The objection is heard and noted, however, why would the use of taxpayer funds be so objectionable if it is taxpayers as a whole that will most certainly benefit by a healthy mortgage secondary market as provided by the two GSEs? It is also understood that not all taxpayers are homeowners and therefore should not have to contribute their hard earned tax dollars to the bail out. True enough. However, most renters do aspire to be homeowners one day, and if they hope to achieve that goal, it will be reliant upon the existence of the two mortgage giants to make that happen. In essence, all taxpayers have a vested interest in the existence of the GSEs and if the tab were to be $25 billion or some other such amount, it doesn't sound like a price too high to pay.
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Think of NMZ Financial & Markenomics for residential mortgage and home loan needs for Lamorinda, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, Contra Costa County and all Bay Area and Califorina real estate.
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