House Passes Flood Insurance Reform Bill
“This longer-term reauthorization of the NFIP is critical to millions of taxpaying American families who rely on the program for flood insurance, which is required to obtain a mortgage in nearly 20,000 communities across the nation. This would restore flagging confidence in a vital program by ensuring its continuation for several years without further disruption to real estate markets upon which our nation’s economic recovery depends,” said Vicki Cox Golder, NAR president.
Golder noted that the authority has been allowed to expire twice in the past two years while Congress approved eight short-term extensions, resulting in multi-week delays if not cancellation of thousands of real estate transactions. Such stop-gap measures have caused many hardships and lost sales for property buyers, sellers and their communities, she said.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where the prospects of passage are not clear.