Birnbaum, Peter J., President, Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund, Champaign, IL, on behalf of National Association of Bar Related Title Insurers Canfield, Anne C., Executive Director, Consumer Mortgage Coalition, Wash- Courson, John A., Chairman, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, Fendly, Neill, Chair, Government Affairs Committee, National Association of Mortgage Brokers, Washington, D.C. Friedlander, Stanley B., President, American Land Title Association, Wash- Rovick, Arne, Vice-Chair & General Counsel, Edina Realty Home Services, Edina, MN, on behalf of the Real Estate Services Providers Council, Inc., Saunders, Margot, Managing Attorney, National Consumer Law Center, Taylor, D. Russell, Chairman, America's Community Bankers, Washington, Friedlander, Stanley B.: American Bankers Association, prepared statement Response to an inquiry from Hon. Mark Green Appraisal Institute and American Society of Appraisers, prepared statement Consumer Bankers Association, prepared statement Independent Community Bankers of America, prepared statement National Association of Realtors, prepared statement "Take Home Pay" The Wall Street Journal February 24, 2003 Page 452 458 476 485 506 512 519 SIMPLIFYING THE HOME BUYING PROCESS: HUD'S PROPOSAL TO REFORM RESPA Tuesday, February 25, 2003 U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:07 p.m., in Room 2128, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Bob Ney [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. Present: Representatives Ney, Green, Bereuter, Baker, Shays, Hart, Tiberi, Harris, Waters, Lee, Watt, Miller of North Carolina, and Davis. Also present was Mr. Manzullo. Chairman NEY. [Presiding.] Good afternoon. The subcommittee on Housing Community Opportunity will come to order. And without objection, all members opening statements will be made part of the record. Hearing no objection they are part of the record. I would remind subcommittee chairs and ranking minority members are recognized for five minutes each. All other members are recognized for three minutes each. And we will alternate, of course, between the majority and minority. I would also want to note due to the length of the time we are going to have to spend and the amount of witnesses, we will try to keep fairly strict on the opening statements to the time so that we can have the opportunity to hear from the witnesses. This is the first housing subcommittee hearing since I was selected as Chairman. It is my hope that the hearings we conduct in the 108th Congress will be informative and of an invaluable assistance to the members as we contemplate legislation that provides housing opportunities for all Americans. I intend for all the hearings to be fair and balanced, and I pledge to work with Ms. Waters, the ranking member, and all the members to see that this is a very productive subcommittee. And I would note, Ms. Waters and I had a conversation just this past week on communicating with each other throughout this process. Today's hearing is about the Department of Housing Urban Development's July 28, 2002 proposed rule that attempts to reform the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, as we all know as RESPA, which will be the first major reform attempt since 1974. On October 5, 2002, the Financial Services Committee heard testimony from Secretary Martinez. Chairman Oxley and the members have expressed a desire to hear other perspectives on this proposal before it became final. This hearing is a continuation of that proc (1) ess in reviewing the proposed rule by hearing from the many different groups that will be affected by this proposed regulation. The Committee has invited a broad cross-section of the real estate and mortgage finance industry as well as consumer advocates in an attempt to fully understand this impact of RESPA reform. I think that everyone here shares the intent of HUD in crafting this regulation which is making real estate settlements easier and more transparent for consumers. Buying a home has become simply too complex and needs to be simplified so there is more transparency in the pricing of settlement services. While we all may agree on that goal, of course, there are a lot of differences on how we are going to achieve that goal. Our witnesses today are here to offer their views on whether or not the proposed rule will achieve that transparency and simplify the home buying process, and if not, what can be done to improve the proposal. I do look forward to hearing from our witnesses. And I want to take a moment to recognize that because of the size and complexity of the real estate settlement industry, we are unable to accommodate, of course, every group that wanted to come to testify today. We also have some material for the record that we will submit. I know that such groups as the Independent Community Bankers of America and the Appraisal Institute have statements that reflect important segments of the real estate settlement process, and with objection, their statements, as well as those of the Consumers Bankers Association, American Bankers Association, and the National Association of Realtors, will be entered in the record. Hearing no objection, they are entered into the record. Also, without objection, the members will be allowed to submit again their written statements for the record. At this time I would yield to Mr. Watt. Mr. WATT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be very brief. If our ranking member was here and-or if we had other members who had not been here previously to discuss this issue, I probably would just pass, but actually I will defer to my ranking member since she just walked in. And then I can pass. You want me to continue or you I think I agree with the Chairman that we all think that some procedures that make the buyers more aware of what is happening, and speed up the process, and less complex are desirable, but that the devil is always in the details. And how you get there from here is a very complex issue that, I guess I have probably been dealing with longer than most people on this committee because I practiced law for 22 years doing real estate work before I came to Congress. So that is 22 years plus the 10 years that we have been talking about this on the committee. Thirty-two years I have been working on this issue, and some things that appear to be logical are not necessarily the most logical way to proceed. And some ways that appear to be illogical may be the only way that you can achieve the necessary objectives. So I will be anxious to listen to all of the people who have input to make on this issue. I think our objectives are all the same, to simplify and make the process more transparent and more visible. |