Georgia Housing Leaders Call on Congress to Help Main Street

(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Georgia housing industry called on Congress January 7 to address the housing crisis that is at the root of the nation’s recession. Rick Porter, owner of Richport Properties, Inc.; Kenny King, president of Kingsland Corp.; and Kurt Cannon, owner of Rabun Builders, Inc. and the president of the Home Builders Association of Georgia, urged Congress to enact bold measures that will stimulate the housing market and, in turn, revive the local, state and national economies.

“Housing is central to our economy and is an engine of production that can lead us out of the recession,” said Porter. “But it is crucial for Congress to enact a major stimulus package to stop the decline in home values, stem the tide of foreclosures, stabilize financial markets and re-ignite consumer demand.”

To get the Georgia economy moving again, the housing industry is urging Congress to support enhancements to the home buyer tax credit and provide below-market, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for home purchases.

Specifically, the legislation should include:

1. A 10 percent tax credit for all qualified home buyers capped at 3.5 percent of FHA, Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae loan limits (equaling $10,000 to $22,000 depending on geographic market). All primary home purchases through December 31, 2009, would be eligible. Repayment would be required only if the home was sold within three years. And the credit would be available at closing, making it easier for buyers to use it as a downpayment;

2. A below-market, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for home purchases. The second component of the stimulus plan would provide qualified home buyers with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at 2.99 percent interest on contracts closed until June 30, 2009 and 3.99 percent interest on closings between June 30 and December 31, 2009; and

3. Continued measures to reduce foreclosures and keep people in their homes.

The housing industry representatives cited a similar plan with both a tax credit and a mortgage rate subsidy that was enacted in 1975 when the nation was also in the midst of a recession. That successful stimulus plan jump-started the depressed economy, and the effects continued in communities across the country long after the measure expired.

“We’ve been in business for about 20 years, and we’re currently working on a project of 23 units which we began back in 2005,” explained Kenny King, president of Kingsland Corp., out of Snellville. “In all my years in home building, this project is probably our best product in our best location, but in this market, we can’t turn the units over. We sold three in 2007, and only four in 2008 – we’ve got 16 left and we don’t know how we’ll sell them. Consumer confidence is basically ‘zero.’ We need stability and confidence brought back to the housing market to end this extended recession.”

Kurt Cannon, owner of Rabun Builders, Inc., from Clayton, and the current president of the Home Builders Association of Georgia, builds second-home and retirement properties. “Our business is basically just shutting down. Last year we only did 25 percent of what we should have done, and now we are finishing up projects without any others lined up. Over the past three months, I’ve talked to between 70 and 80 builders around the area, and I keep hearing the same story over and over again. Builders with high credit ratings, with decades of good credit, current on their payments, are suddenly told by their banks that they have to pay off their loans in 10 days or the bank will foreclose. Of course, they end up foreclosing and the bank just ‘fire-sales’ the neighborhood. It’s the same story all around. We must stop the bleeding.”

“When the housing industry is in a crisis, the entire community is affected,” continued Porter. “Retailers, manufacturers, service providers and even the local government are affected. Most important, local residents suffer.”

“Three million home building-related jobs across the country have been lost as a result of the slowdown in housing production, which represents $145 billion in lost wages and $4.9 billion in lost purchases,” said National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) economist Bernard Markstein. “Deterioration in these jobs has now spilled over into virtually all sectors of the U.S. job market and the economies of states like Georgia.”

"We are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to convince Congress to quickly enact a robust housing stimulus program. There’s no question that stopping the decline in home values and restoring demand for housing is the fastest and most effective way of reviving the economy," Porter said.

The housing leaders in Georgia are part of a new coalition called Fix Housing First, consisting of more than 600 organizations, home building companies and manufacturers advocating for this major stimulus package to stem the decline in home values, stabilize financial markets and re-ignite consumer demand. To learn more about Fix Housing First, go to www.fixhousingfirst.com.

-----
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Community News You Can Use
Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone

Economic Slump Weakens Pending Home Sales

/PRNewswire/ -- After holding fairly stable for a year, pending home sales declined in the face of job losses and an eroding economy, according to the National Association of Realtors(R).

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, fell 4.0 percent to 82.3 from a downwardly revised reading of 85.7 in October, and is 5.3 percent below November 2007 when it was 86.9. The current index is the lowest since the series began in 2001.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a weakening was inevitable. "Mounting job losses and very weak consumer confidence deterred home buyers from signing contracts in November," he said. "December's housing market activity could be comparably lower due to ongoing problems in the economy, so a real estate-focused stimulus plan is urgently needed."

Yun said the outlook will depend heavily on the stimulus package. "With a proper real-estate focused stimulus measure, home sales could rise more than expected, by more than 10 percent to 5.5 million in 2009, and easily begin to stabilize home prices in many parts of the country. Stable home prices will, in turn, lessen foreclosure pressures and lay the foundations for a solid economic recovery as the nation's 75 million homeowners regain confidence," he said.

The impact of mortgage interest rates declining to near 50-year lows in December is not reflected in current data.

The PHSI in the Northeast dropped 7.2 percent to 63.2 in November and is 14.6 percent below a year ago. In the Midwest the index fell 6.7 percent to 74.2 and is 10.1 percent below November 2007. The index in the South declined 2.2 percent to 85.3 in November and is 12.7 percent below a year ago. In the West, the index was down 2.4 percent to 101.2 but remains 19.3 percent higher than November 2007.

NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth, said there can't be an economic recovery without a focus on housing. "It's crucial for Congress and the new administration to move quickly to remove impediments and offer home buyers the incentives they need to tap into today's historic low mortgage interest rates," he said.

"NAR advocates expanding a $7,500 tax credit to all home buyers and eliminating the repayment feature, and permanently raising loan limits to bring down interest rates for many buyers in high-cost areas. We also need to expedite short sales and unclog the mortgage pipeline," McMillan said.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage should hold fairly steady through the first half of the year and rise slightly in the second half. NAR's housing affordability index, which looks at the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates and family income, is on track to match a record high set in 1972.

"The unique housing affordability conditions in today's market underscore the opportunity in giving consumers the necessary incentives to stimulate our economy through a housing recovery," Yun said.

The National Association of Realtors(R), "The Voice for Real Estate," is America's largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

*The Pending Home Sales Index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.

The index is based on a large national sample, typically representing about 20 percent of transactions for existing-home sales. In developing the model for the index, it was demonstrated that the level of monthly sales-contract activity from 2001 through 2004 parallels the level of closed existing-home sales in the following two months. There is a closer relationship between annual index changes (from the same month a year earlier) and year-ago changes in sales performance than with month-to-month comparisons.

An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined as well as the first of five consecutive record years for existing-home sales.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

President Bush Signs Landmark Housing Bill into Law

RISMEDIA - Landmark housing legislation signed into law yesterday by President Bush is aimed at ending the current cyclical downturn in the housing industry, helping home buyers and strapped borrowers and strengthening the housing finance system, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

“This milestone bill contains several provisions to get home buyers back into the marketplace, stop the slide in home prices, provide a lifeline to borrowers facing foreclosure, improve mortgage liquidity and bolster confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said NAHB President Sandy Dunn, a home builder from Point Pleasant, W.Va. “We commend Congress and the President for taking this action to provide much-needed relief to the American people.”

For the past year, NAHB has been in the forefront in pushing for legislation to address the turmoil in the financial and housing markets and to bolster the nation’s faltering economy.

“By helping Americans avoid foreclosure, cracking down on predatory lending, protecting communities from the blight of abandoned homes, and providing generous tax incentives to encourage home ownership, this legislation will help strengthen the housing market and create jobs,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a chief architect of the bill, calls it “the most important piece of housing legislation in a generation.”

Prudential California/Nevada/Texas President Ed Krafchow agreed, saying the passing of the bill signifies an important turning point in the real estate industry.

“I think [the passing of the bill] is indicative of us coming through the storm,” Krafchow said. “The best part of this is, that this is a rebuilding process and now we’re on the other side of the perfect storm that hit the industry and certainly damaged the financial part of the business and greatly impeded doing real estate transactions. I’m not suggesting we’ve hit smooth sailing, but the majority of the storm is over and we’re starting to move forward in the business and the industry as it grows. That’s the most positive piece of the signing of this bill.”

Key elements of H.R. 3221, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, include:

- A temporary first-time home buyer tax credit. The tax credit will stimulate home buying, reduce excess supply in housing markets and shore up home prices.

- FHA modernization and expansion. A revitalized FHA will have greater flexibility to respond to the needs of borrowers, enable more working families to become home owners and play an important role in the mortgage markets. To address the foreclosure crisis, the FHA is given additional authority to insure up to $300 billion of mortgages to refinance loans headed for foreclosure.

- GSE (government-sponsored enterprise) reform. The law reforms the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and permanently increases the conforming loan limit to help buyers in high-cost markets. To reassure financial and global markets, the government will temporarily expand its line of credit to Fannie and Freddie and permit the U.S. Treasury to purchase an equity stake in the companies through the end of 2009.

- Mortgage Revenue Bond Program. The measure gives states the ability to issue an additional $11 billion in mortgage revenue bonds, which will help strapped borrowers seeking to refinance their home loans.

- Low Income Housing Tax Credit. Enhancing this program will expand the supply of much-needed affordable rental housing.

Tax Credit Centerpiece of Housing Bill

The centerpiece of the housing bill is a temporary, $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit for the purchase of any home. The tax credit can be used for homes purchased between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009. It is expected to provide a significant-and temporary-financial incentive for home buyers.

“The tax credit is the best stimulative measure,” said Dunn. “It will increase housing demand, get home buyers back into the marketplace and fight falling home prices, which threaten the economy as a whole.”

The original eligibility period expired in April 2009, but following a major grassroots campaign from NAHB members, the period was extended to June 30, 2009 to enable home builders to include the credit in their sales and marketing next spring and into the early summer-the peak home buying season.

NAHB has launched a new website, www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com, which includes a set of comprehensive questions and answers about how the credit works and how consumers can put it to their advantage.

Make the Most of Your Tax Rebate: Reinvest in Your Home

ARA – In an effort to jumpstart the struggling economy, the federal government has approved an economic stimulus package that will send rebate checks to qualifying taxpayers, some as early as May. Homeowners can use this refund to invest in home improvements that add value in a difficult housing market.

Qualifying individual taxpayers will get up to $600 in rebates, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child. Add that to the average refund some taxpayers can expect after filing their taxes ($2,548 in 2007, according to CNNMoney.com) and that’s approximately $3,800 in total refunds from the federal government this year.

Investing these dollars in home improvements, such as replacing old leaky windows with newer, energy efficient ones, can offer homeowners a significant return on investment. Some experts believe that replacement windows are one of the best home improvement investments you can make in your home.

“Remodeling Magazine’s” 2007 Cost vs Value Report estimates that a homeowner may recoup 81 percent of the cost of installing low maintenance replacement windows at resale. That means on an $8,000 window replacement project, homeowners may recoup $6,480 at the time of sale.

In addition, new energy efficient windows can lower heating and cooling bills, improve a home’s comfort and aesthetics, and add long-lasting value.

There are some important things to keep in mind when choosing new energy efficient windows. Craig Evanich, president of Renewal by Andersen, suggests homeowners look for the ENERGY STAR label to ensure that they are energy efficient. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, replacing inefficient single pane windows with ENERGY STAR qualified windows could save up to 15 percent on your energy bills.

Evanich adds that Renewal by Andersen energy efficient windows are designed to perform at even higher standards. They come standard with High-Performance Low-E4 glass which is over 14 percent more energy efficient than stringent ENERGY STAR requirements and is 56 percent more energy efficient in summer than ordinary dual pane glass.

With a substantial savings in energy costs along with a solid return on investment from home improvement projects, buying energy efficient windows is a wise use of your rebate dollars. And, if you ever decide to sell your home, energy efficient windows can give you the edge -- and often a higher resale value -- over other sellers in an increasingly competitive housing market.

For more information on choosing energy efficient windows, visit renewalbyandersen.com or call (800) 630-5838.

Courtesy of ARAcontent