The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, signed into law by President Bush on July 30, has sparked numerous debates over its mechanisms to assist struggling homeowners, future homebuyers and lending institutions. However, some of the complex law’s nuances are poorly understood, and certain provisions have received only a passing mention in news reports. In an effort to better explain the law, here are five key questions and answers:

Question: Why does the housing act offer unlimited credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Answer: The law’s most far-reaching provision gives financial assistance to the government-sponsored Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Association, which own or insure nearly half of the roughly $12 trillion in U.S. mortgage debt. Fannie Mae and its younger brother Freddie Mac have suffered losses totaling about $11 billion in recent months, due in large part to their investments in financially risky sub-prime loans. Both associations purchase loans from lenders and sell them as mortgage-backed securities to the global investment market. The housing act allows the U.S. Treasury to offer Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac an unlimited line of credit until the end of 2009, and it can also buy their stock. The hope is that a federal guarantee will bring gun-shy investors back to the secondary market, which provides the funding for lenders to make future loans.

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The reverse-mortgage market is in full retreat in Australia, with the fourth lender this year announcing it is pulling back.

Reverse mortgages have long been touted as the solution for funding retirement for senior citizens who are asset rich but cash poor. Especially popular in Australia and New Zealand, reverse mortgages allow borrowers to cash in on their home.

They establish a loan facility and then draw down the amount in a series of withdrawals over a period of time.

Typically borrowers are protected from negative equity and are guaranteed their home until death or until they choose to sell. Borrowers can arrange a series of lump sum drawdowns, or a regular income stream.

But, as interest rates have risen, the profit margins have decreased, and reverse mortgage holders can find this especially difficult as their planned income stream is interrupted.

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Massachusetts has the highest rate of residents with health insurance in the nation, according to a federal report released yesterday that provides fresh evidence of success in the state’s bold experiment to insure nearly everyone.

The US Census Bureau study found that when data from 2006 and 2007 were averaged, 92.1 percent of Bay Staters had health insurance. That is significantly higher than during the previous two-year period, when the figure stood at 89.7 percent.

By comparison, barely three-quarters of residents had health coverage in Texas, the state that fared worst. Nationally, nearly 86 percent of Americans were insured in the 2006-07 period.

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First Potomac Realty Trust has refinanced its remaining debt maturity for the year, a $72 million first mortgage loan that was secured by 14 properties in suburban Maryland.

Among the 1.39 million square feet of property is a large four-building flex site called Girard Place in Gaithersburg.

To complete the refinance, the Bethesda-based real estate investment trust used funds drawn on the company’s unsecured revolving credit facility, as well as a new secured term loan provided by Cleveland-based KeyBank NA.

That loan has an initial balance of $35 million with the ability to increase the loan amount by an additional $35 million. It matures in September 2010, and has a one-year extension option.

“We are pleased to close the refinancing of our suburban Maryland portfolio with debt that lowers our borrowing cost, increases our borrowing capacity on our unsecured credit facility and facilitates the possible sale of some of our suburban Maryland assets,” said Jeff Harris, director of finance at First Potomac (NYSE:FPO).

The trust, which has a 11.4 million-square-foot portfolio, has $14 million in mortgage debt maturing next year and $38 million in 2010, according to Harris.

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If you have the breast cancer gene, is an employer justified in not promoting you to a key job out of fear that you’ll get sick? If you have diabetes, controlled by medication, should an employer be able to find that out and not hire you in assumption your health insurance costs will be high?

I recently dug into a thick file labeled, “Genetics as employment issue.”

The file chronicles explosive scientific advances in genetic testing and a 10-year congressional history of proposals to ban the use of such information in employment and some insurance decisions.

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Japan has seen a raft of property developers go to the wall this year as banks have refused to refinance their loans. Analysts say the bankruptcy filings are likely to set off a vicious cycle that will weigh on the sector’s shares in the coming months.

The reason: Real-estate firms that have run into financial difficulty are selling off assets at fire-sale prices, which will put the value of properties under strain.

So far this year, 8,916 companies have filed for bankruptcy in Japan, a third of which were in construction or real estate, according to data compiler Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. Big blowups include real-estate management firm Reicof and condominium developer Suruga. Just last week, Urban Corp., a Hiroshima-based condominium developer and sales agent, filed for bankruptcy.

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A law pushed through this week by the the governor of Illinois requires health insurers to let kids stay on their parents’ policies until age 26, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Twentysomethings make up a disproportionate percentage of the nation’s uninsured - in part because they feel invincible, but also because of other factors, such as job hopping and working part-time jobs that don’t offer insurance benefits.

At the same time, they’re pretty cheap to insure because they tend to be healthy. So lots of states have been enacting laws like the one in Illinois that require insurers to give parents the option of covering their kids well into their 20s. The Trib says such laws have already been implemented or will soon be put in place in 20 states.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, the state’s largest insurer, said the new law would add 1% to the cost of the average group benefit plan. Companies that self-insure answer to the federal government, so the new law doesn’t apply to them.

But the federal rules, too, could soon shift in this direction. Barack Obama has said that families should have the option of covering kids on the parents’ plan until age 25.

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The housing and foreclosure rescue package signed by President Bush this week is one of the most controversial and important laws passed in some time.But the question remains: Will it work?

Proponents say the new programs and funding are urgently needed to combat dropping property values and the spread of neighborhood blight. But critics say it still isn’t nearly enough to reverse the damage created by irresponsible and predatory loans.

Here’s what the package is meant to do:

Stop people from going into foreclosure

In an attempt to stop the problem at its root, Congress is helping people to refinance bad loans and to learn how to stay out of foreclosure.

Many homeowners struggling to make payments on high-interest subprime mortgages soon will be able to refinance through a new Federal Housing Authority program beginning Oct. 1. It’s projected that the $300 billion program will help 400,000 homeowners facing possible foreclosure.

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Massachusetts senior citizens seeking extra income through reverse mortgage loans have a new outlet to assist them in their decision-making.

The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation and the Executive Office of Elder Affairs announced Friday the launch of a Web site, http://www.mass.gov/reversemortgage, that allows visitors to gain key insights into what is involved in a reverse mortgage loan.

Using the tools on the site, the state hopes they can better determine if it is prudent to apply.

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On Friday mornings, Chief Executive Jeff Olson and his team at Equity One sit down and go through every vacancy in the 145 shopping centers spread largely across Florida and the Southeast.The goal of the meetings is to keep close tabs on renewals, potential new tenants in the pipeline and any tenants at risk of going out of business. This kind of coordination is particularly critical in these economic times where tenant turnover is rising.

The North Miami Beach real-estate investment trust’s South Florida properties have some of the highest tenant turnover rates, but the good news is that there’s still demand for retailers looking for more locations in this market. The picture isn’t as bright in markets like Naples, Fort Myers and Tampa, where turnover is slightly lower but demand is significantly less.

”Overall the balance of power between the landlord and the retailer is more equally distributed than it was a couple of years ago,” Olson said. “We do have less leverage than we did.”

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