What seems to be lost in the news about the housing market — between the talk about rising home sales and record-low mortgage rates — is the question as to whether Congress will extend 2007 Mortgage Relief Act.

In 2007, then-U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law this act in order to boost short sales by doing away with any of the borrower’s tax liabilities associated with these untraditional sales. In a short sale, the bank allows the home to be sold for less than the value of the mortgage. The debt (the amount of the mortgage not covered by the sales price) would be forgiven, but then taxed, with the borrower having to pay the tax. The Mortgage Relief Act lifted the tax burden as a way to stimulate the short sales market.

The Act is set to expire by the end of the year. Some members of Congress may let it expire, being under the impression that the housing market will continue to improve over the next few months and possibly into next year, although it is still far off from the peaks of 2006. But one housing market analyst countered that, if the Act were to run its course, home sales would hit a “triple dip” into the start of 2013, with housing prices falling once again.