Jackson: 'Urgent Need' to Modernize FHA

Citing new survey findings, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson told a recent Wells Fargo housing symposium that there is an "urgent need for Congress to pass legislation that modernizes the FHA to help both promote and protect homeownership."The survey, released by Wells Fargo, indicates that nearly 80% support legislation that would promote and protect homeownership in America "by providing a safer, fairer and more affordable mortgage alternative to high-cost subprime loans," HUD said. Addressing the symposium in Washington, D.C., Mr. Jackson said the survey shows that a modernized Federal Housing Administration would help hundreds of thousands of subprime borrowers find an exit strategy. "Americans are in support of an FHA that could help even more first-time homebuyers and people with moderate incomes have access to safer mortgages," he said. The survey also found that about 79% of Americans in the Northeast and 75% in the West, where real estate costs are the highest in the nation, favored the FHA modernization legislation.