8.1.2008

Bush Enacts Watershed Housing Bill Providing New Funding and Regulation for Mortgage Industry

On July 30, 2008, President Bush quietly signed one of the largest housing bills in decades to shore up struggling financial markets and a housing industry slump that is second only to that of the Great Depression. The Housing Assistance Act of 2008, signed after months of contentious negotiations, creates a $300 billion program to refinance troubled mortgages and creates new regulatory oversight of Fannie Mae (“Fannie”) and Freddie Mac (“Freddie”), which finance almost half of the country’s $12 trillion in home mortgage debt. View full article (PDF).