The bill calls for the US Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment to annually index multi-family mortgage limits to theconsumer price index, thus paving the road for more building oflow- and moderate-income apartments in typically high-cost areas."Now the mortgage limits in all areas of the country will increasewith the consumer price index, allowing the limits to more closelyreflect the actual cost of building apartments," Mortgage BankersAssociation of America senior VP Cheryl Patton Malloy tellsGlobeSt.com.

Malloy goes on to say that, "before the 25% increase approvedlast year, the loan limits had not been increased for 10 years,making it impossible to build apartments with FHA insurance--andthese are usually moderate income apartments--in many areas of thecountry." The index adjustment, however, does not take effect untilJanuary 2004.