Home builders, others try to gain president-elect's ear

Home builders are off to a quick start, urging president-elect Barack Obama and lawmakers to get moving on a second stimulus package during the lame-duck session.

From a statement released today by the National Assn. of Home Builders:

To provide short-term targeted incentives that will help put a floor on home prices and encourage Americans to buy homes again, NAHB is urging Congress to provide:

-- A 10% home buyer tax credit up to a maximum of $22,000, depending on the FHA loan limit in a given market. Available to all buyers who purchase a home over the next year, the tax credit would not have to be repaid by the buyer and would replace the temporary $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit due to expire on July 1, 2009.

-- An interest-rate buy down on conforming loans for all families purchasing a home through the end of 2009. The plan would reduce the interest rate to 2.99% on 30-year mortgages for homes purchased through June 30, 2009; the interest rate would increase to 3.99% on contracts closed between July 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2009.

But the builders weren't the first to get their oars in the water, the Alliance to Save Energy on Wednesday urged the president-elect to fulfill his campaign promise "to make building a sustainable energy future for America a key priority upon taking office in January" in a statement from the coalition of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo:  Nuccio DiNuzzo  / Chicago Tribune

Comments

[Drew]

Sure -- sign me up for this giveaway!!!!

[Jayne]

The builders should be getting investigated for the fraud that led to the bubble and market collapse. They engaged in predatory lending thru in-house lenders, title insurance kick backs, coerced apprraisers to inflate values, and so on. They should not be getting any favors from congress they should be forced to pay the price for their greed and at times fraud. The investigations that have gone on so far have not resulted in meaningful punishments; the fact they were fined should be sufficient evidence they don't deserve a bailout. (HUD and the SEC have both fined and reprimanded builders this year, and some smaller companies have had their owners indicted for mortgage fraud, but the big builders have seen no one tried on criminal charges yet.)

[dclogang]

NO PROPPING UP OVER INFLATED HOUSE PRICES!!!

It doesn't matter anyway, it won't help... I'm not buying till the house prices in SFV drop below $200,000.

Even then I might not buy. I don't mind renting actually. What if a buy a house and the big one hits, leveling houses including the one I buy. I hear earthquake insurance is too expensive or am I wrong?

[Laker]

Why stop there?
HEY OBAMA, let's put a floor under these correcting house prices. We MUST do anything we can to keep house prices unaffordable and to make sure that prudent families have nothing left for retirement, education for the kids, and health care.
1) Give $500,000 tax credit for people to buy houses.
2) Give 0% APR on 30 year mortgages to buy houses.
3) Make the Federal government pay for the property tax.
4) Give special reward to flippers to encourage house flipping by giving them $25,000 per flipped house.
5) Bring back those Stated income and 0 down Option ARM loans . and FAST!!!!
6) Better yet, just send another $700 billion check directly to NAHB.

There is no problem that people will get nothing left for health care or education, as Obama promised to make it free...
Great,! House prices will get back to 2006 "nominal" levels....to bad, loaf of bread would cost $20, and gallon of gas $10.
What a bunch of crooks running this country!!!

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

How about paying himself only one penny a year and the same for alll appointed members of his administration?

Then, donate all that as seed money to Thank You for Not Contributing to the Housing Bubble Fund.

I know he probably can't do much about the Opinion Bubble, which is that peculiar modern phenomenon where there are more opinions than demands for them. But maybe he can pop that last remaining bubble - Presidential Power Bubble. The office of the President, well, here goes one more opinion, has, over the years, grown and grabbed way too much power, thus become way too corrupting. Many an idealistic, innocent savior has lost the way in that maze.

[dreadlord]

Please Sir, can we have some More!

[E]

$22,000 tax credit? Sure...might help houses move in Missouri but hardly an incentive in the West Coast bubble states.

People don't want tax credits, they want rational, realistic prices.

If we had realistic housing prices, we would have extra money to go out and purchase "things"...you know..."things"...cars, dinners out, clothes, electronics, services...whatever...the stuff that's not selling now and is the cause of many layoffs.

Lower housing prices + people buying "things/stuff/services" = eventual economic recovery.

High house prices = people *still* don't buy houses and *still* don't buy "stuff" because if they spend too much on a house, and are subsequently "house poor", then they don't really have much disposable income left over to support the economy.

Know what I mean?

[iabb]

Um, isn't $700 billion enough? Stay vigilant people - bombard your representatives with calls, emails, letters - no more bailouts and no more action to keep housing prices artificially inflated.

[TC]

Can I sell my house back to myself so I can get this tax break??

I just don't get how they can justify any of these "new" programs to give everyone big breaks or what they perceive as big breaks anyway.

And let's not forget, what helps folks in Nebraska is probably no help to Californians.

[srla]

Sure, and next we should work with oil companies to ensure a "floor" in sweet crude prices. (Think of all the poor investors in oil futures taking a bath!)

What sheer idiocy. Who in their right mind would listen to the recommendations of the very people that helped trash our economy in the first place? Does one work with drug dealers to help an addict recover (by giving him subsidized doses of heroin)?

Are our politicians truly this dumb or this corrupt?

[el guapo]

srla,

that is a question that I wrestle with from time to time - corrupt or incompetent? I think it's a combo meal.

[Joe]

We should not bail the shaddy homebuilders. Greed, fraud, arrogrant. Not on those tax dollars of hard working people who did nothing wrong. Can't dip hands in all business, that would be like communism. Agreed with Drew.