Amendment aims to help military homeowners

A amendment that was approved last night in the U.S. House aims to give the Pentagon some flexibility to assist military families in bad housing markets, which lawmakers said could help airmen stationed at Nellis and Creech Air Force bases.

The major economic stimulus bill that passed in February 2009 authorized the Defense Department to offer assistance to servicemembers who receive "must move" orders and have to sell their homes during the mortgage crisis, often at a big loss.

To qualify for a subsidy that reduces the loss, a home must have been purchased before July 1, 2006.

The problem, according to Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., is that the housing crisis did not hit Southern Nevada and other parts of the country in force until after that date. Homes bought by some Nellis and Creech personnel before the Las Vegas housing bubble burst may not qualify.

Norbert Ryan, president of the Military Officers Association of America, added summertime is when normal change of station rotations take place. Setting the eligibility at July 1, in the midst of the moving season, seemed arbitrary.

The amendment that was approved as part of a larger defense policy bill would give the Secretary of Defense the flexibility to change the qualifications in parts of the country where housing prices trended behind the national average.

The amendment was sponsored by Titus, Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif. It was backed by a number of military family organizations.

The change "will help servicemembers break even (or at least help reduce loss) on the sale of their homes," said John McCauslin, chief executive officer of the Air Force Sergeants Association.