White House opposes Senate housing bill

All kinds of news is breaking out on the real estate beat today. A quick catch-up:

--The White House voiced strong opposition to the Senate housing bill, saying it "will likely do more harm than good by bailing out lenders and speculators, and passing on costs to other Americans who play by the rules and honor their mortgage debt obligations."

--Washington Mutual found some new friends with money: "The Seattle-based thrift scored a $7 billion capital infusion Tuesday from a group led by private equity shop TPG." WaMu said "mortgage problems will lead to a $1.1 billion quarterly loss and the elimination of 3,000 jobs.... It also plans to close its 186 stand-alone home loan offices and stop offering loans through mortgage brokers."

--The National Assn. of Realtors reported that "pending sales of previously owned homes fell a bigger-than-expected 1.9% in February to the lowest level on record."

-- Last, never least, the L.A. Land blog launched several photo galleries in the popular, user-generated LATimes.com photo gallery Your Scene. The above photo, taken in Mar Vista this morning, is from the Foreclosure gallery. Post your photos, it's easy and free. Other L.A. Land galleries include Weird L.A. Houses, Under Construction and Tree of the Week.

Thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.

Comments

[bulwark]

Wow, Bush finally got one right! He couldn't ignore the millions of prudent savers and taxpayers who oppose spending their hard-earned dollars to bail out fools who borrowed more than they could repay.

[Truth2Pwr]

I shudder to think that the politician making the most sense on the housing issue is Dubya. Just leave the markets alone and let capitalism prevail.

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Not to be out-done, in Britain today, they announce prices dropped 2.5% from February to March. Whipping out my abacus, I laboriously figure that amounts to 30% drop annually.

With prices up 171% in the last decade there, another 20% drop (in, say, 6 months) and they will have zero inflation adjusted (assuming 5%) gain for their troubles, other than nuisances like interest/tax/insurance/upkeep payments.

As for Spain, it could be worse, but we won't talk about it except to say, it's raining on the plain...in Spain.

[NationalBubble.com]

Yeah, Bush opposing the housing bailout in its current form is great news. Now we need to call Congress and force them to stop this housing bailout.

http://tinyurl.com/45tvrw

[Fred]

Wow, it only took 8 years for me to agree with something Bush did.

[JK]

While as a taxpayer, I applaud the effort to refuse money to bailout out homeowners that got in over their heads, my humanitarian side wonders why the Bush administration can find money to bail out a major Corporation that helped create the situation and should have known better but suddenly get religion when it comes to helping American citizens...

[Maggie Knowles]

From the Washington Post, House legislation for relief for buyers and families :
http://tinyurl.com/4xycc3

"We need to provide relief to the buyers and families themselves, not just the banks and builders," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) said yesterday in a written statement. "The House bill will put families first."

The House proposal would create a temporary tax credit of as much as $8,000 for first-time buyers and would increase the availability of tax credits for investors in low-income housing, according to senior Democratic aides. Like the Senate bill, it would create a standard deduction for property taxes that would assist more than 28 million homeowners who do not itemize on their federal tax returns. And it would expand the authority of state and local housing finance agencies to use tax-exempt bonds to refinance troubled mortgages.

To cover the cost of the legislation -- about $11 billion over the next decade -- the House proposal would require brokers to report the purchase price as well as the sales price of stocks and other instruments subject to the capital gains tax. It also would delay for one year the implementation of certain tax benefits for multinational corporations.

Rangel has scheduled a committee meeting for tomorrow to consider the legislation. If approved, House leaders hope to pair the tax package with an ambitious proposal to permit the Federal Housing Administration to underwrite up to $300 billion in loans for borrowers who can't meet the obligations of their current mortgages.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) plans to hold hearings this week on that proposal, which is aimed at giving lenders a powerful incentive to forgive a portion of the debt on troubled mortgages and saving more than a million homeowners from foreclosure.

[John]

"The National Assn. of Realtors reported that "pending sales of previously owned homes fell a bigger-than-expected 1.9% in February to the lowest level on record."

Bigger than expected by WHOM?

The NAR is so crooked it makes Lombard Street look like I-5.

I swear to god, how long is it before real estate agents start wearing T-shirts and buttons that say "Proudly NOT affiliated with the NAR."?

[srla]

I guess after almost 8 years in office, he was bound to finally get ONE thing right. Though I have to admit, I somehow feel a bit dirty for actually agreeing with W. on something. (And no, I'm not a Democrat.)

[left of lefty]

bush wants the money for iraq.