I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 230 
To prevent foreclosure of home mortgages and increase the availability of 
affordable new mortgages. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 7, 2009 
Mr. CARDOZA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To prevent foreclosure of home mortgages and increase the 
availability of affordable new mortgages. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Housing Opportunity 
and Mortgage Equity Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. AFFORDABLE REFINANCING MORTGAGES AND NEW 
MORTGAGES. 
(a) AUTHORITY.—The Federal National Mortgage 
Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Cor-
poration shall each carry out a program under this section 
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to purchase and securitize qualified refinancing mortgages 
and qualified new mortgages on single-family housing, in 
accordance with this section and policies and procedures 
that the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency 
shall establish. 
(b) PURCHASE OF QUALIFIED MORTGAGES.— 
(1) REQUIREMENT TO PURCHASE.—If a lender 
proffers to an enterprise, in accordance with require-
ments established by the Director, a mortgage or 
mortgages for purchase under this section, the en-
terprise shall make a determination of whether such 
mortgage or mortgages are qualified mortgages. 
Subject to subsection (g), if the enterprise deter-
mines that such mortgage or mortgages meet the re-
quirements for qualified mortgages, the enterprise 
shall make a commitment to purchase, and shall 
purchase, the mortgage or mortgages. 
(2) ADVANCE
COMMITMENTS.—The Director 
shall require each enterprise to establish a procedure 
for approval of lenders to receive commitments, in 
advance of the origination of qualified mortgages, 
for purchase of such mortgages under this section by 
the enterprise. 
(c) QUALIFIED MORTGAGES.— 
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(1) QUALIFIED MORTGAGE.—For purposes of 
this section, the term ‘‘qualified mortgage’’ means a 
mortgage that is a qualified refinancing mortgage or 
a qualified new mortgage. 
(2) QUALIFIED REFINANCING MORTGAGE.—For 
purposes of this section, the term ‘‘qualified refi-
nancing mortgage’’ means a mortgage that meets 
the following requirements: 
(A) SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSING.—The prop-
erty subject to the mortgage shall be a one- to 
four-family dwelling, including a condominium 
or a share in a cooperative ownership housing 
association. 
(B) PRINCIPAL
RESIDENCE.—The mort-
gagor under the mortgage shall occupy the 
property subject to the mortgage as his or her 
principal residence. 
(C) REFINANCING.—The principal loan 
amount repayment of which is secured by the 
mortgage shall be used to satisfy all indebted-
ness under an existing first mortgage that— 
(i) was made for purchase of, or refi-
nancing another first mortgage on, the 
same property that is subject to the quali-
fied refinancing mortgage; and 
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(ii) was originated on or before Janu-
ary 1, 2008. 
(D) INTEREST
RATE; TERM
TO
MATU-
RITY.—The mortgage shall— 
(i) bear interest at a single rate that 
is fixed for the entire term of the mort-
gage, which shall not exceed 4.0 percent 
annually; and 
(ii) have a term to maturity of not 
less than 30 years and not more than 40 
years from the date of the beginning of the 
amortization of the mortgage. 
(E) 
UNDERWRITING
STANDARDS.—The 
mortgage shall meet such underwriting stand-
ards as the Director shall require. 
(F) 
WAIVER
OF
PREPAYMENT
PEN-
ALTIES.—All penalties for prepayment or refi-
nancing of the underlying mortgage refinanced 
by the mortgage, and all fees and penalties re-
lated to the default or delinquency on such 
mortgage, shall have been waived or forgiven. 
(3) QUALIFIED NEW MORTGAGE.—For purposes 
of this section, the term ‘‘qualified new mortgage’’ 
means a mortgage that meets the following require-
ments: 
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