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7336627
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President Signs S. 3979, the Emergency Home Purchase Assistance Act of 1974 [Signing Statements and Announcements]
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7336627
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document
title
President Signs S. 3979, the Emergency Home Purchase Assistance Act of 1974 [Signing Statements and Announcements]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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U.S. Senate. (03/04/1789 - )
Legislation
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7336627
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18
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1974-10-18
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10
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1974
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Digitized from Box 3 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 1974
Office of the White House Press Secretary
THE WHITE HOUSE
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
It is with great pleasure today that I am signing into law S. 3979, the
Emergency Home Purchase Assistance Act of 1974.
In my remarks to the Joint Session of the Congress on October 8, I
urged the Congress to enact, before recess, additional legislation
to make most home mortgages eligible for purchase by an agency of
the Federal Government. I also remarked that I remembered how
much Congress can get done when it wants to.
I am most pleased that exactly one week after my remarks, the Congress
responded with passage of the Emergency Home Purchase Assistance Act of 1974.
This bill authorizes the Government National Mortgage Association in
the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make commitments
at predetermined interest rates to purchase mortgages, both on new
and existing homes, which are not Federal Housing Administration
insured or Veterans Administration guaranteed -- the so-called
"conventional" mortgages which comprise about 80% of all mortgages,
The advantage of the plan is that with the GNMA commitment, the
homebuyer, builder and lender have an assured source of financing
at a known, favorable interest rate. The cost to the Government is
limited to the loss which GNMA realizes if its selling price for
a mortgage is less than its original purchase price.
Like most emergency measures, this bill has some minuses.
Notwithstanding the increasing proportion of American families that
choose each year to live in apartments or condominiums, the bill
unfortunately does not cover conventional mortgages for apartment
or condominium projects. Moreover, I had hoped that this help for
the housing industry could be delivered with a minimum inflationary
impact, and I know that the Congress intended the program to be
self-supporting. However, the bill establishes a rigid, illogical
interest ceiling formula that fails to relate interest income to
actual borrowing costs and to cover adequately administrative
costs.
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