GOP Continues to Push for a 4% Mortgage Buydown

Senate Republicans are trying to revive and refine an interest rate buy-down proposal that would create a 4% mortgage even though the Senate shot down the language on a 35-62 procedural vote. The original buy-down amendment offered by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., provided low-rate mortgages to 40 million borrowers at an estimated cost of $300 billion. A majority of senators refused to waive budget procedures to add such an expensive program to the economic stimulus bill. In opposing the Ensign amendment, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said it would not help borrowers with underwater mortgages, adding that a refi surge would not reduce the glut of unsold homes on the market. "It is a totally flawed proposal," he said. One source said Sen. Ensign might pare down the buy-down program and possibly limit it to homebuyers. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is expected to offer an amendment on Friday that raises the maximum loan limit on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration loans back to $729,750 for the rest of this calendar year. A similar loan limit provision is contained in the House-passed Economic Stimulus bill.