Description:
For this estimate, CBO assumes that H.R. 2162 will be enacted near the end of fiscal year 2019, before fiscal year 2020 appropriations for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) have been enacted but late enough in the year that the act’s provisions would not apply to mortgage guarantees made in 2019. If H.R. 2162 were enacted after 2020 appropriations were completed, any budgetary effect for 2020 would be treated as a change in direct spending. H.R. 2162 would require FHA to provide a form of risk-based pricing by offering a discount of 25 basis points on the up-front premium charged to first-time homebuyers receiving FHA-insured mortgages who have completed an agency-approved mortgage-counseling program. (A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.) To qualify for the discount, homebuyers would need to complete the counseling before applying for a mortgage. CBO estimates that implementing the act would have no significant effect on discretionary offsetting collections from the FHA mortgage insurance program in any year over the 2020-2024 period.
