The Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008
Lancaster Newspapers, PA - 8 hours ago
First-time home buyers will be entitled to a refundable tax credit for 10 percent of the purchase price of a principal residence, up to a maximum of $7500. …
HATA authorizes the Treasury to rescue the mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, if they are on the verge of collapse. Treasury may make unlimited loans or buy stock. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together now guarantee nearly half of the country’s $12 trillion in mortgages. As reported by David Herszenhorn for the New York Times, “[s]ome experts have said that the law was wrong-headed in its effort to retain the hybrid nature of the mortgage finance giants, which are private companies with publicly traded stock, but which now have an explicit guarantee of help from the government — an arrangement that critics say privatizes the profits but socializes the risk and any losses.”

A new independent federal agency is born — the Federal Housing Finance Agency — with powers over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.