Eliminating or curtailing the mortgage interest deduction would have a disproportionate impact on younger, middle-class families, who would see their ability to become owners significantly diminished, with sober implications for their longer term financial prospects, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) told Congress today.
“How housing is treated in any future tax reform will shape the economy going forward,” Robert Dietz, an economist and assistant vice president for NAHB, testified during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on tax reform options to provide incentives for homeownership.
Most Americans consider homeownership to be their single best long-term investment and a primary source of wealth and financial security. According to the 2007 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, the median net worth of a home owner is $234,600, compared to $5,100 for renters.
“We believe that any policy change that makes it harder to buy a home, or delays the purchase of the home until an older age, will have a significant long-term impact on household wealth accumulation and the make-up of the middle class as a whole,” said Dietz. Read the rest of this entry »
Spoken by Julie Q. Fuelling |
Foreclosed and foreclosing properties dominate many of today’s U.S. real estate markets–more than four years after the sharpest observers saw the market shift coming, and more than two years after the reality hit home for millions of American home owners.
While Katy is not suffering like other areas of the country, the number of foreclosures in our hometown has grown substantially. (Pictured above are two foreclosures currently on the market.)
First-time home buyers make up almost half of all buyers of bank-owned foreclosures and soon-to-be foreclosed short sale properties. They’re followed closely by investors seeking rental properties, and a third important group—homeowners who find they can move up to a bigger or better home they previously could not afford.
The truth is: These markets demand most of the same things an ordinary Read the rest of this entry »
Spoken by Julie Q. Fuelling |
Thousands of first-time and move-up buyers who hoped to make a foreclosed property their new home now face uncertainty, anxiety and possibly remorse as they worry that closing on their desired property could be in jeopardy.
For many, the dream of homeownership could turn into agony if their home purchase is indefinitely delayed by a moratorium on foreclosures declared by some banks, the National Association of Realtors® said today. The moratoriums are needed, banks say, to review all of the foreclosures in their portfolios to make sure they’re in compliance with the law and that titles are clear.
NAR warned that a prolonged review process would have a damaging impact on many communities and hinder the nation’s economic recovery.
“As the leading advocate for homeownership issues, we understand that many lenders need a time-out to review their actions to ensure that homeowners are not improperly foreclosed on and that the lenders are following regulations and state laws. After that, the foreclosure process must resume quickly to return stability to families, the housing market and the economy,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates, Tucson, Ariz.
Over the past few months NAR has met with officials of top banks to discuss market issues. NAR urged banking leaders to seek resolution quickly through loan modifications and the short-sale process rather than through foreclosure. “We stand ready to help lenders develop better short-sale Read the rest of this entry »
Spoken by Julie Q. Fuelling |
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