Yesterday, following approval by the U.S. Senate (98-0) earlier in the week, the U.S. House voted 403-12 to extend and expand the homebuyer tax credit as part of the Unemployment Insurance/benefits extension bill. The legislative package is pending the President’s signature.

Here is a link to an NAR Issues Brief: http://takeaction.realtoractioncenter.com/ct/J7S_I-K1MTLc/

It is based on a new element of the Report, an affordability index, which compares the median income to the income that is required to purchase a median-priced home. As of August 2009, a family with Indiana’s median income can afford 240% of the state’s median home price. The report makes a strong case for becoming a Hoosier homeowner.

Since then, the complaint process has been very simple: file a complaint online with the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions (DFI). The DFI can then watch for patterns with certain lenders and use regulatory authority to investigate.

However, as this law has evolved, other statutory authority has been discovered to pursue those in violation of the short sale law. Recently we heard from the Homeowner Protection Unit of the Attorney General. They, too, have enforcement authority over the complaints.

So, it passed the House this summer, what has been going on since then?

A lot and a little. Since the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the “American Clean Energy and Security Act,” often referred to as “Cap and Trade,” not a whole lot of official action has been taken by the Senate but there doesn’t seem to be a lack of posturing, discussion and, of course, politicking in regards to the bill.

Last summer, the House approved combined climate change and energy legislation (H.R. 2454) that would establish national building codes and energy labeling for new construction only. NAR worked with members of Congress to strip the labeling, energy audit and MLS provisions before the House voted on a bill. The bill the House ultimately passed was much less onerous than originally proposed. In the Senate, multiple committees have been working to report provisions which ultimately would be merged into (and voted on as) one bill.

To date, two of the six Senate committees have reported their pieces of a Senate omnibus energy bill. Each committee action represents one in a long series of steps that must be taken prior to full Senate consideration of the legislation. Last summer, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee reported the omnibus bill’s energy provisions that are less prescriptive on building codes and energy information. The Environment and Public Works Committee recently reported the climate provisions which would be combined with the energy provisions. While the Senate bill is less prescriptive, the House bill would nevertheless exempt existing real estate from energy labeling and prohibit the EPA from moving forward with regulations to reduce carbon emissions from multi-family and commercial buildings.

In addition, Senators including John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) have outlined principles and are working to develop a bipartisan consensus around the Senate response to the House energy legislation.

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden recently announced a new “Recovery Through Retrofit” initiative that includes creation of “energy performance labels” and “national energy performance measures” for existing homes, despite the fact that the House bill exempted existing homes and buildings from energy labeling. NAR President Charles McMillan has requested a meeting to share our strong concerns about the stigmatizing effects of these labels on real estate at one of the most critical moments in the nation’s economic recovery.

As the legislative process continues to unfold and the Senate develops its alternative to the House bill, NAR will continue to work with members of Congress to maintain the real estate exclusions from energy labeling and any other bill provision that will have a direct impact on the real estate sector.

The property tax caps began to phase in this year and move to their full amount next year at 1% of assessed value for residential property, 2% for rental property, and 3% for businesses. The intent though is to make those changes permanent. To do so requires an amendment to the Indiana Constitution. That requires passage by two separately elected legislatures and then passage on a referendum vote by the citizens of Indiana. The legislature had the chance last session to pass the caps for a second time but House Democrats refused to allow a vote citing concerns about what the caps impact would be on the budgets for local government. The legislature must pass the caps again this session or the measure dies and must start all over again.

While last week marked the official start of the session, legislators typically do not start meeting until the first week in January. However, with several key issues facing them in a short session that is scheduled to end in March, leaders have called for meetings to begin in December.

The debate over property tax caps will certainly be front and center. However, it will also lead to many related issues as well. The impact on the budgets for local government will again be an issues connected to this debate – along with a continued discussion about local government reform and consolidation. And there are discussions about limiting assessments.

The legislative session is sure to be address these and many other key issues important to the real estate industry and your REALTOR® association plan to be engaged from start to finish. So stay tuned for updates as the session begins.