Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday passed 84-12 a bipartisan package of tax breaks and other steps aimed at the housing crunch. The plan combines tax breaks for homebuilders and a $7,000 tax credit for people who buy foreclosed properties, as well as $4 billion in grants for communities to buy and fix up abandoned homes.
Democrats failed to win approval of ideas such as giving people threatened with losing their homes the right to seek more favorable loan terms. The White House says parts of the bill would make the problem worse by depressing some home values, and that the measure would use taxpayer money to bail out lenders saddled with foreclosed houses.
