With a high rise in unemployment rates, many people are taking the opportunity they have of not having a job to retrain themselves and refocus their careers into something that will be needed in the near future and right now that is mortgage education.  The economy is slowly making a turn around for the better and therefore the housing market will also make a comeback and mortgage loan officers will be needed to help families and individuals fill out mountains of paperwork in order to release the funds for their home mortgage loans.

Back in July of 2008, then President George Bush signed into law the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.  This wide-ranging act addresses many concerns and topics regarding mortgage reform; however one of the major themes this act covers is called the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 also known as S.A.F.E.  The safe mortgage education program establishes national minimum standards for mortgage training – both pre-licensing and continuing education.

The American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) work together to construct the new National Mortgage Licensing System so that states have one centralized location on the Internet to license their mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders.

This new system is designed to help the effectiveness and efficiency of state supervision of the US mortgage market fight mortgage fraud and predatory lending and streamline and unify state license processes for mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders. 

The Residential Mortgage Licensing System could be especially useful for companies operating in several different states because they will be able to renew all their licenses for all states in one place.  In addition, by having a national system, the regulators will be able to see if a company applying to do business in their state has complaints in other states.  If there are problems in another state that could be grounds for not licensing them in the state they applied for a license.

Helping the economy along is the $8,000 tax credit being offered through the government to first-time home buyers; however this tax credit will expire at the end of this year.