Obama strives for Congressional approval regarding refinance proposal

By Sari R. Updated on 10/1/2012

President Barack Obama is currently asking Republicans to be in support of housing policies that would allow troubled homeowners to refinance and prevent foreclosures.  Obama is pointing a finger at congressional Republicans for refusing to pass February legislation that would reduce lending rates for over a million borrowers who have been trapped under their mortgages for years.  The reason why the congressional Republicans are opposed is because the proposal has an estimated cost of $5 to $10 billion.

This past Saturday, Obama criticized Congress and the fact that it still hadn’t acted on the proposal seven months after the fact.  As of now, Congress is in a recess and will not reconvene until after the November elections.  Obama made a comment about how the main focus of Congressional members has now shifted to elections, when they should still be worrying about the plight of troubled American homeowners.

The reason why Obama is so insistent on passing the proposal is because home prices have drastically increased across the nation.  When comparing July 2012 to July 2011, there was a 1.2% increase of home prices.