Emergency Middle Income Housing Act

(Conference report filed in Senate, S. Rept. 94-161)

=Title I: Emergency Middle-Income Housing= - Emergency Middle-Income Housing Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to reduce interest rates on home mortgages for middle-income families by (1) making periodic interest reduction payments; (2) making interest rate differential payments; and (3) purchasing below-market-interest mortgages, through the facilities of the Government National Mortgage Association.

Requires the Government National Mortgage Association to purchase, or commit to purchase, any home mortgages under this Act at a price equal to par. States that the interest rate on such mortgages may not exceed seven percent per year.

Provides that any mortgages which are not insured by the Federal Housing Administration or guaranteed by the Veterans' Administration may be purchased by the Association only if (1) the outstanding principal balance of the mortgage does not exceed 80 percent of the value of the property securing the mortgage or (2) the mortgage is insured by a qualified insurer as determined by the Association.

Authorizes the Government National Mortgage Association to guarantee securities based on pools or trusts of the mortgages purchased or assisted under this Act as provided in the National Housing Act.

Sets the amount of a home purchase incentive payment at $1,000. Limits such payments to the purchase of a single-family or two-family unit or a unit in a cooperative housing project, the construction of which began on or after March 26, 1975.

Defines "middle-income families" as used in this Act as those families (including single individuals) whose incomes do not exceed 120 percent of the median income for the area.

Defines "home mortgage" to mean a mortgage covering a newly constructed or substantially rehabilitated single-family unit or two-family unit, where the owner occupies one of the units or a one-family unit in a condominium project, or a newly constructed or substantially rehabilitated cooperative housing project, where the appraised value of the unit at the time of purchase, or average appraised value per unit in a cooperative does not exceed $38,000, or $42,000 in high-cost areas as determined by the Secretary and $48,000 in Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam.

Limits the aggregate amount of mortgages assisted to amounts approved in appropriation Acts, but in no event may such amount exceed $12,000,000,000. Authorizes appropriations of such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act, including such sums as may be necessary to make the interest reduction payments and the interest rate differential payments.

States that the aggregate amount of contracts to make interest reduction payments may not exceed amounts approved in appropriation Acts, and payments pursuant to such contracts may not exceed $300,000,000 per year. States that the aggregate amount of mortgages purchased by the Government National Mortgage Association may not exceed amounts approved in appropriation Acts, and the aggregate amount of such mortgages shall not exceed $12,000,000,000.

Limits the aggregate amount of contracts to make home purchase incentive payments to that approved in appropriations Acts, and limits payments pursuant to such contracts to $400,000,000.

Directs the Secretary to allocate to applicant lenders aggregate amounts of mortgages to be assisted.

Provides that not more than 30 percent of the aggregate mortgage amounts approved in appropriation Acts may be allocated for use with respect to new, unsold dwelling units, the construction of which was commenced prior to March 26, 1975.

States that not more than 15 percent of the aggregate mortgage amounts approved in appropriation Acts may be allocated with respect to dwelling units with appraised values exceeding $38,000.

States that if a family assisted with interest reduction payments sells or otherwise ceases to occupy the property for which assistance was granted within four years from the date of execution of the mortgage, there shall become due and payable the lesser of: (1) the amount of the assistance; and (2) the gain realized on the sale. Establishes other repayment formulas for other periods of years.

Makes a mortgagor ineligible both for a credit against income tax for the purchase of a home and for assistance under this title.

Permits only middle-income families to assume mortgages purchased under this title.

Provides that after June 30, 1976, no interest reduction payments, mortgage purchases, or home purchase incentive payments shall be made under this title except pursuant to contracts made before such date.

=Title II: Emergency Mortgage Relief Payments= - Authorizes the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make repayable emergency mortgage relief payments on behalf of homeowners who are delinquent in their mortgage payments.

Sets forth conditions under which such authority shall be exercised, including that the mortgagor has incurred a substantial reduction in income as a result of involuntary unemployment or underemployment due to adverse economic conditions and is financially unable to make the full mortgage payments.

States that, for purposes of this title, the term "mortgaged property" includes, but is not limited to, property owned in fee simple, condominium units, mobile homes, or multiunit dwellings.

Permits such payments to equal up to $250 per month for 12 months, renewable for 12 months. Authorizes $500,000,000 in appropriations for purposes of this title.

Terminates such program on July 1, 1976.

=Title III: Miscellaneous= - Authorizes the extension of the rehabilitation loan program under the Housing Act.

Increases the set-aside of contract authority for projects to be owned by public housing agencies under the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 to $300,000,000 from $150,000,000.

Extends the low-income home ownership assistance program through July 1, 1977.

Authorizes the Department of Housing and Urban Development to permit qualified State housing agencies to raise the income limits for eligibility for admission to non-FHA insured, State-assisted housing projects and to vary rent-to-income ratios to not less than 20 percent of the tenant's income.

Authorizes a 6-month extension, under the Flood Disaster Protection Act, until January 1, 1976, of the prohibition against the making of loans by federally-supervised lending institutions to finance the acquisition of a previously occupied residential dwelling.

Authorizes the Government National Mortgage Association to make commitments to purchase, and to service, sell, or otherwise deal in, a mortgage which covers more than four-family residences (including cooperative or condominium projects), or a single-family unit in a condominium, and which is not insured under the National Housing Act or guaranteed under specified circumstances.