Congress passed and sent to
President Obama a 60-day extension of the National Flood Insurance
Program (NFIP)which was set to expire. The legislation
gives lawmakers breathing room to look at a long-term extension and
reform of the program, which NAR strongly supports.
The program, which provides federal backing of flood insurance for
some 5.6 million home owners in 21,000 communities around the country,
has been subject to more than a dozen short-term reauthorizations
similar to yesterday’s in the last four years. Since 2008, the program
has lapsed twice, with one such lapse lasting almost two months in 2010.
NAR estimates that some 1,300 transactions a day were stalled during
that lapse, creating enormous economic dislocations for the communities
in which the properties were located. NAR has estimated that 8 million
homes, or about 10 percent of all homes in the country, are located in
either the 100-year flood plain or other types of flood hazard areas.
In testimony
before the Senate Banking Committee earlier this month, NAR President
Moe Veissi asked lawmakers to turn to long-term extension of the
program as soon as possible. “All stopgap extensions do is maintain an
uncertain status quo while shut downs risk homes, businesses,
communities, and the U.S. economy,” he told the committee. NAR is urging
lawmakers to reauthorize the program for five years and make reforms to
increase the program’s efficiency.
Among those reforms are changes to the appeals process for areas
designated as flood hazards areas, streamlining and improving the review
process for flood mapping, and making the pricing structure more
accurate.
Source: REALTOR® Magazine