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Lawmaker: Extend mortgage protection for vets

Two projects aimee at protecting veterans with adjustable rate mortgages and adjustable hybrid rate mortgages could be extended past the end of this year if Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., moves her legislation forward.

The Department of Veterans Affairs guarantees mortgages that have an annual limit on interest rates adjustments. Hybrid loans are similar but have a fixed interest rate over a certain number of years.

Both programs are due to expire at the end of this year. Under Brown-Waite’s bill, mortgage benefits for veterans on adjustable rate mortgages would be extended until 2018 and hybrid rate mortgages until 2012.

One lesson learned from the recent mortgage crisis is that too many borrowers used risky, high-cost adjustable rate mortgages that got them in over their heads and put them on the path toward foreclosure, Brown-Waite said in a statement.

Brown-Waite’s spokesman is hoping to get her legislation attached to any available tax bill going forward to the House and Senate, said her spokesman, Charlie Keller.

Brown-Waite said the VA program provides veterans with a safety net at a time when the housing market has become uncertain.