by Tanta on 2/08/2008 01:23:00 PM

WASHINGTON, Feb 08, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The National Association of Realtors congratulated the U.S. Congress for quickly passing a national economic stimulus package and thanked President George W. Bush for his leadership and willingness to promptly enact legislation that will help thousands of families, the housing market, and the U.S. economy.

"We believe the economic stimulus bill that Congress sent to the president today is strong legislation that will quickly impact the nation's families and economy," said NAR President Richard Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif. "We are pleased that both the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSE) loan limits have been increased, even if only temporarily. This will be a major stimulus for the housing industry and for people who want to own a home."

Increasing FHA loan limits will help an additional 138,000 Americans achieve the dream of homeownership and will allow nearly 200,000 homeowners to refinance and potentially keep their home, according to NAR research. . . .

An economic impact study conducted by NAR earlier this month estimated that increasing the GSEs' conforming loan limits would result in as many as 500,000 refinanced loans and could help reduce foreclosures by as much as 210,000. In addition, over 300,000 additional home sales could be generated, housing inventory would be reduced and home prices would be strengthened by two to three percentage points. "These are real results and will have an immediate and sustainable impact for families across our country," said Gaylord.

I'm posting the text of this only so that when we go back and do the numbers at the end of 2008 and see that NAR's estimates for GSE refis and purchases were off by about an order of magnitude, we don't have to worry about the link to the original PR having disappeared from the toobz.

I'm hesitating, by the way, to make my own estimates of potential additional refis and sales transactions under the new GSE conforming limits, since we don't yet know what guidelines the GSEs will use for the larger loans (especially but not limited to maximum LTV/CLTV and mortgage payment history); we don't know when the GSEs will announce these standards so that lenders may begin taking applications, and we don't know how the things will be pooled or guarantee fees set, which will definitely impact the rate offered and hence the motivation for existing jumbos to refinance. And until those announcements are made, we won't know how many months of 2008 will be left. That said, I will go on record as being stunned and surprised if we see more than half of NAR's dreams come true.