Dear Mr. Government: Help!
Time for a guessing game. Guess who fashioned this quote of the week:
“Each week that goes by, another 15,000 workers are losing their jobs and 47,000 families are entering foreclosure. Home equity has fallen by $879 billion during the past year alone,” said Mystery Man X. “How many more Americans have to suffer before Congress will act?"
Al Sharpton? Ralph Nader? The American Association of People with Large Car Payments who Can't Afford their Mortgages?
It's Jerry Howard, head of the National Association of Home Builders. He and other fair weather free marketers are begging Congress and the president to pass a new tax credit for home buyers.
We've said it here before: The government already is a well oiled goody dispenser. Think federally supported home loans, the mortgage interest tax deduction or Florida's homestead exemption.
Howard was reacting to a June survey of his membership that showed business confidence matching a 23-year low.
I sympathize with the plight of businesses suffering through the downturn, newspapers included. But builders are already doing the right thing to right the market: They've cut prices and idled the bulldozers. The market must purge itself of the glut of unsold homes.
How does encouraging people to build NEW homes - apparently Howard's intention - do anything to reduce supply?
(Un)Real Estate offers a peek at the housing market usually reserved for insiders. While it focuses on the Tampa Bay area, it won't neglect dipping
into the rest of Florida and beyond. Its goal? Simple: To help you keep a roof over your head without losing your shirt.
“How many more Americans have to suffer before Congress will act?"
Moot
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n4-062008.cfm
Let the ad hominem begin. (oops, too late!)
Posted by: k | June 20, 2008 at 04:50 PM
The market must purge itself of the glut of unsold homes.
We never heard this special interest group ask for this type of help during the boom.
The Americans suffering are suffering from a bubble that popped due to excess and nothing more. Excess credit, excess assets, excess greed are the results of this downturn and nothing more.
The market is in a long overdue corrections and it will last for some time. Any attempts of a bailout will only lead to deeper and more lasting problems for the future. The market must correct without any intervention from the government let alone tax credits to buy overpriced and overvalued property just to bailout the building industry.
No corporate welfare!
Posted by: Fuzzy Bear | June 23, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Why is the gov't not acting sooner?
No matter that there are 2+ million vacant houses in this country - please help subsidize this industry! Besides, how else are we going to keep the tens of thousands of illegal aliens employed?
Also, while they're at it, could the government please-please-PLEASE continue to subsidize:
- Multi-millionaire farm owners
- Everyone's house insurance
- Oil Companies
- Beach-front Owners
It's important to ensure everyone NOT pay their fair share - it's the Floridian Way! We want free money - it's our god-given right!!!
- Sarcasm Button Off -
Cheers!
Posted by: Florida - Paradise Lost | June 23, 2008 at 01:30 PM
PLEASE continue to subsidize:
Insurance companies
Provide more corporate welfare
Tax incentatives to send more jobs offshore.
Posted by: Fuzzy Bear | June 23, 2008 at 03:08 PM
If it's a tax break and not a subsidy, I'm for it.
FPL, my wake-up-call anecdote with regard to farm subsidies long ago....
..knew of a large land tract owner in LA (Lower Alabama) that regularly colluded with a "farmer". The landlord leased the farm at a rate too high for the tenant make any profit but under what the gov would subsidize...both made a small fortune and did little work. ...did it for years. Great huh?
That was about 20 years ago and I don't know if the paradigm's changed. Oy!
...and then there's the military industrial complex...
Posted by: k | June 23, 2008 at 04:04 PM
I did a quick google search on what the NAHB is actually wanting from the govt - and see it differently than most of the commenters thus far.
The NAHB is clearly wanting some assistance from the gov't - in the form of tax incentives for buyers, but the target is builder inventory homes (not new starts).
I can kind of see where they are coming from though... Didn't the gov't pass (or about to pass) legislation allowing buyers who choose a foreclosure to get a special tax credit? If they did, then they just made the playing ground unfair for the builders to get rid of their inventory (which will probably drive values down even further in order to compete - which hurts everyone).
I honestly don't care if the government offers tax credits for buyers of ANY home - so long as lending practices are tightened and the incentives are only available on the purchase of one home, per family.
The fact of the matter is this housing mess has and is continuing to drag down the rest of the economy. The sooner it's over, the better we'll all be.
Even my dentist says she's been hurt with a lot less business. I've never seen/heard of a dentist going bankrupt, but when they do - we have real problems! (a bit of humor intended, but it's something to think about).
Posted by: Steve | June 23, 2008 at 10:51 PM