(CNN) - In his weekly address Saturday, President Barack Obama emphasized the plan he laid out earlier this week to further bolster the nation's housing market.

In a speech in Phoenix, Obama called for the phase-out of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and for a greater private-sector role in doling out loans.

He also pushed for a return of the 30-year fixed rate mortgage, considered a safe bet compated to more exotic loans.

Read Obama's full remarks below.

    Hi, everybody. For the past few weeks, I’ve been visiting folks across America to talk about what we need to do as a country to secure a better bargain for the middle class.

    I’ve been laying out my ideas for how we can build on the cornerstones of what it means to be middle class in America. A good job. A good education. Affordable health care when you get sick. A secure retirement even if you’re not rich. And the chance to own your own home.

    This week, I went to Arizona and California, two of the states hit hardest when the housing bubble burst, triggering the recession. All across the country, millions of responsible Americans were hurt badly by the reckless actions of others. Home values plummeted. Construction workers were laid off. And many families lost their homes.

    Over the past four years, we’ve worked to help millions of responsible homeowners get back on their feet. And while we’re not where we need to be yet, our housing market is beginning to heal. Home prices and sales are rising. Construction is up. Foreclosures are down. Millions of families have come up for air because they’re no longer underwater on their mortgages.

    Now we have to build on this progress. Congress should give every American the chance to refinance at today’s low rates. We should help more qualified families get a mortgage and buy their first home. We should get construction workers back on the job rebuilding communities hit hardest by the crisis. And we should make sure that folks who don’t want to buy a home have decent, affordable places to rent.

    As home prices rise, we have to turn the page on the bubble-and-bust mentality that created this mess, and build a housing system that’s rock-solid and rewards responsibility for generations to come. We need to wind down the companies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, make sure private capital plays a bigger role in the mortgage market, and end the era of expecting a bailout after your pursuit of profit puts the whole country at risk. We need to preserve access to safe and simple mortgages like the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage. We need to keep laying down rules of the road that protect homeowners when they’re making the biggest purchase of their lives. And finally, Congress needs to confirm Mel Watt to be our nation’s top housing regulator, so that he can protect consumers and help responsible lenders provide credit.

    No program or policy will solve all the problems in a multi-trillion dollar housing market, and it will take time to fully recover. But if we work together, we can make a home a source of pride and middle-class security again. And if Washington is willing to set aside politics and focus on what really matters, we can rebuild an economy where if you work hard, you can get ahead.

    Thanks, and have a great weekend.

SOurce: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/10/obama-talks-housing-in-weekly-address/

The coalition government has launched a number of initiatives during the past few years to try to stimulate the mortgage market within the new homes sector, which have been successful to a certain degree.

Its latest scheme, Help to Buy, which was announced in the last budget, seems to have captured the public imagination but also maybe highlighted a political agenda.

The Help to Buy scheme comes in two parts. Part one is already up and running and provides equity loans for up to 20% of new build properties. This already appears to be a public success – with over 7,000 properties reserved under the new scheme within the first three months of its launch, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government.

It is the second part of the scheme that appears to have become a political target. From January 2014 it is proposed that the scheme be extended to include all homes and not just new build properties.

There are fears that this may be a step too far and create artificial house price inflation. Only last week on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, voiced his concern: “I am worried of the danger of getting into another housing bubble.”

Is this a true concern or just a typical point scoring exercise by a political party? I believe it may well be both. The interesting point is that the view is being expressed by a current member of the coalition government and not by the opposition party.

So, what are the facts and where is the real story? It will be the first time that the current government has targeted non new build properties with one of its schemes.

Is this a political move or a genuine attempt to kick-start the housing market? As always, it is probably a bit of both. There have been plenty of people who have pushed for a scheme that was not just available to new build properties to help the second-time buyers move up the housing ladder.

This is important because if there are no second-time buyers, then the only avenue for first-time buyers is a new build property. This surely limits choice?

The second concern is that this will create a new housing bubble. It is true that this is something that we need to avoid but I feel that the scheme should not encourage this. There has been a pent up demand from people to move home and this may well be the stimulus required.

Traditionally, more properties on the market can help slow house price inflation as there is competition for each purchaser. Also, the scheme has a cap on how much the government is looking to spend – which will limit exposure and should control any potential bubble.

What cannot be argued is the link between government announcements and perceived political bartering. We will never be able to delink the two, but the key is that the policies are sound and have a positive impact on the housing market.

 The ongoing housing recovery, coupled with improvement in both consumer confidence and the labor market, is expected to boost economic growth in the second half of the year, according to a new report by Fannie Mae (FNMA).




The mortgage-finance company noted the latest jobs report showed steady year-to-date job creation and measures of consumer confidence are at or near recovery highs.




Furthermore, it said that despite a sharp increase in mortgage rates during the past two months, home sales have held up and home prices have continued to post gains, helping to keep the economy on a positive growth path this year.




"We continue to see growth in housing, partly due to an increase in existing home sales as buyers choose to act while rates remain near historic lows," Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan said. "Consumer attitudes are improving amid a strengthening employment sector and we should begin to see a moderate pickup in consumer spending."




Fannie Mae said its forecast for July is little changed from last month. Overall, the company expects economic growth of 2% this year, but said further momentum later in the year should help carry growth in 2014 to an above-par pace of 2.6%, the strongest since 2005.




The company added it expects home mortgage rates to continue to rise gradually, averaging 4.7% in the fourth quarter of this year--about 0.4 percentage points higher than the number cited in its June forecast--but said the forecast of home sales is little changed, with expectations of an 8% rise in 2013.




Fannie also said that while the surge in mortgage rates hasn't significantly hurt purchase mortgage applications, it has led to a marked decline in refinancing applications, which is expected to continue next year. 




Source: Wall Street Journal