Title: Homebuyer Assistance Act of 2019
Policy area: Housing and Community Development

Summary:
Homebuyer Assistance Act of 2019
This bill modifies requirements for appraisers of Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages. Currently, an appraiser must be certified by certain state or national entities. The bill removes the national entities from the list of approved certification entities and allows an appraiser to be state-licensed rather than state-certified to meet requirements. The bill also provides specified educational requirements for appraisers.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2852 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2852

     To amend the National Housing Act to authorize State-licensed 
 appraisers to conduct appraisals in connection with mortgages insured 
   by the FHA and to require compliance with the existing appraiser 
             education requirement, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 20, 2019

 Mr. Sherman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To amend the National Housing Act to authorize State-licensed 
 appraisers to conduct appraisals in connection with mortgages insured 
   by the FHA and to require compliance with the existing appraiser 
             education requirement, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Homebuyer Assistance Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. APPRAISER STANDARDS.

    (a) Certification or Licensing.--Paragraph (5) of section 202(g)(5) 
of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 1708(g)(5)) is amended--
            (1) by striking subparagraph (A) and inserting the 
        following new subparagraph:
                    ``(A) be certified or licensed by the State in 
                which the property to be appraised is located; and''; 
                and
            (2) in subparagraph (B), by inserting before the period at 
        the end the following: ``, which shall include completion of a 
        course or seminar that consists of not less than 7 hours of 
        training regarding such appraisal requirements and is approved 
        by the Course Approval Program of the Appraiser Qualification 
        Board of the Appraisal Foundation or a State appraiser 
        certifying and licensing agency''.
    (b) Compliance With Verifiable Education Requirements.--Effective 
beginning on the date of the effectiveness of the mortgagee letter or 
other guidance issued pursuant to subsection (c) of this section, 
notwithstanding any choice or approval of any appraiser made before 
such date of enactment, no appraiser may conduct an appraisal for any 
mortgage insured under title II of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 
1707 et seq.) unless such appraiser is in compliance with all of the 
requirements under section 202(g)(5) of such Act (12 U.S.C. 
1708(g)(5)), as amended by subsection (a) of this section, including 
the requirement under subparagraph (B) of such section 202(g)(5) 
(relating to demonstrated verifiable education in appraisal 
requirements).
    (c) Implementation.--Not later than the expiration of the 180-day 
period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall issue a mortgagee 
letter or other guidance that shall--
            (1) implement the amendments made by subsection (a) of this 
        section;
            (2) clearly set forth all of the specific requirements 
        under section 202(g)(5) of the National Housing Act (as amended 
        by subsection (a) of this section) for approval to conduct 
        appraisals under title II of such Act, which shall include--
                    (A) providing that the completion, prior to the 
                effective date of such mortgagee letter or guidance, of 
                training meeting the requirements under subparagraph 
                (B) of such section 202(g)(5) (as amended by subsection 
                (a) of this section) shall be considered to fulfill the 
                requirement under such subparagraph; and
                    (B) providing a method for appraisers to 
                demonstrate such prior completion; and
            (3) take effect not later than the expiration of the 180-
        day period beginning upon issuance of such mortgagee letter or 
        guidance.
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