Major provisions of housing rescue package

(AP) - Major provisions of housing rescue bills in the House aimed at heading off foreclosures, preventing neighborhood blight and stabilizing the market.

- Give the Federal Housing Administration $300 billion in new lending authority and relax its standards to provide affordable, fixed-rate mortgages to debt-ridden homeowners.

- Modernize the FHA and allow it to back loans for riskier borrowers. Permanently increase the size of loans the agency can insure - currently set to revert to $362,790 by the end of the year - to $729,750 in the highest-cost areas.

- Tighten regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that finance mortgages, and permanently raise the limit on the loans they can buy - set to revert to $417,000 by the end of the year - to $729,750 in the highest-cost areas.

- Provide low-income housing tax breaks, low-income rental housing incentives and a credit of up to $7,500 for first-time homebuyers, to be paid back over 15 years.

- Give states $10 billion in tax-free municipal bond authority for low-interest loans to first-time homebuyers, construction of low-income rental housing, and refinancing subprime mortgages.

- Create a safe harbor from investor lawsuits for mortgage holders who modify loans to borrowers who are in default or about to default.

- Provide $210 million for pre-foreclosure counseling.

- Send $15 billion in loans and grants to states for buying and fixing up foreclosed property.