SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business — Trade group seeks break for state’s home buyers
As the nationwide credit crunch continued to shake Wall Street and the lending industry yesterday, the California Association of Mortgage Brokers urged Congress to give a financial break to the state’s home buyers.

Leaders of the trade group asked federal lawmakers to declare California a “high-cost” state and raise the limit on the size of loans that can be purchased or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Now set at $417,000, the limit for so-called conforming loans forces many borrowers in pricey markets such as San Diego County to apply for more expensive “jumbo” loans.

Lending in the jumbo market has grown tighter as Wall Street has shied away from mortgages that are not backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

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Ed Smith Jr., the group’s vice president of governmental affairs and industry relations, said consumers should “knock down the doors of their (federal) legislators to get the limit increased.”

The proposal could benefit California consumers, said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, a lending watchdog group. “It probably is in the interest of most Californians if those thresholds are raised.”

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Declaring California a high-cost state would place it among select regions where the conforming rate limit is about 150 percent higher, Smith said. They include Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Yesterday, at the brokers association’s Annual Convention and Grand Exposition in Long Beach, the group also urged Congress to allow the Federal Housing Administration to increase access to its loans for “borrowers with less than perfect credit or unique employment circumstances.”

If you love Freedom, California, and Prop 13, you should be out there supporting the CAMB right now and fighting for cheaper mortgages for Californians. WTH? Alaska gets breaks on mortgages and we don’t?

If anything, they should raise the limits on mortgages to $800,000 simply for being the best place on the planet.

Congress simply doesn’t get California. Go California Association of Mortgage Brokers! Go!