Posted on 06/08/2012 7:11:11 PM PDT by Lorianne
More than 700 home builders made their way to Capitol Hill this morning to meet with their representatives and senators on several key housing issues, including legislation to help restore the flow of credit for new housing production, GSE reform, and housing tax incentives.
"Though we are seeing some hopeful signs of recovery in many markets throughout the nation, our industry still faces stiff headwinds," said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, Fla., in a statement from NAHB.
Persistently tight lending standards for home builders and home buyers, uncertainty regarding the future of the housing finance system, ongoing threats to vital housing tax incentives, and overly burdensome regulations are hampering a housing recovery and keeping countless home building firms from constructing viable projects and hiring new workers, he added.
In more than 250 individual meetings with their representatives and senators, builders called on their lawmakers to: •Support legislation to restore the flow of credit for new housing production. NAHB is urging the House Financial Services Committee to consider H.R. 1755, the Home Construction Lending Regulatory Improvement Act. Sponsored by Reps. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) and Brad Miller (D-N.C.), the measure currently has 96 co-sponsors and would remove barriers to lending while preserving the regulators' ability to assure the safety and the soundness of the financial institutions they oversee. NAHB is seeking cosponsors for similar legislation in the Senate, S. 2078, the Home Building Lending Improvement Act, sponsored by Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). •Pass comprehensive legislation to reform housing government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks that provides a federal backstop to ensure a reliable and adequate flow of affordable housing credit in all economic and financial conditions. •Preserve current housing tax incentives, including the mortgage interest deduction and Low Income Housing Tax Credit, as the debate on tax reform moves ahead. •Support legislation to make much-needed improvements to the Environmental Protection Agency's Lead: Repair, Renovation and Painting (LRRP) rule (http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm). Sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the Lead Exposure Reduction Amendments Act of 2012 (S. 2148) would offer several reforms to EPA enforcement of the lead paint rule, including reinstating the opt-out provision to allow home owners without small children or pregnant women residing in them to decide whether to require LRRP compliance. •Cosponsor House and Senate bills that would reduce the overreach of federal power under the Clean Water Act. House bill H.R. 4965, the Preserve the Waters of the United States Act, and its identically named Senate companion measure (S. 2245), would prevent the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from finalizing or implementing their draft guidance to expand the reach of the Clean Water Act to include virtually every ditch, pond and seasonal runoff ditch in the nation.
For more, visit: http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?newsID=15354.
Great way to send everybody into the land of broke.
You would think that these people would have learned .... if you want something to go from bad to terrible, just invite the Federal Government to help!
Signs of recovery? There is no recovery and will not be until Romney is elected....I think the financial world will go bonkers and party big when that happens.
Getting rid of Obama and his communist buddies is a major first step to restoring confidence in the economy and the future of America...
I see at least a couple of provisions I agree with.
(S. 2245), would prevent the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from finalizing or implementing their draft guidance to expand the reach of the Clean Water Act to include virtually every ditch, pond and seasonal runoff ditch in the nation.
(S. 2148) would offer several reforms to EPA enforcement of the lead paint rule, including reinstating the opt-out provision to allow home owners without small children or pregnant women residing in them to decide whether to require LRRP compliance.
Hey, I’ve got an idea to help.
We’ll let Bawney Fwank take care of the loan rules.
After all, he’s almost as smart as the Obamadork.
Thanks Bawney, Dead Ted, and Harvard. You’ve all succeeded in removing any lingering notions that Massachusetts has any intelligence contained within.
Heh!
Hey, I’ve got this great idea! I’m going to call it CRA, the Community Reinvestment Act. Can’t miss getting a lot of people owning homes. We’ll have the gummint force banks to give loans to anyone as long as they have any kind of job or if they’ve thought that having a job some day might be a good idea. And if the new owners default, the gummint will take the loss. This is a win-win, can’t miss success waiting to happen!
Hey, I’ve got this great idea! I’m going to call it CRA, the Community Reinvestment Act. Can’t miss getting a lot of people owning homes. We’ll have the gummint force banks to give loans to anyone as long as they have any kind of job or if they’ve thought that having a job some day might be a good idea. And if the new owners default, the gummint will take the loss. This is a win-win, can’t miss success waiting to happen! Everyone can own a house now.
It’s de ja vu all over again -—
Are these people living in a bizarro world??????????
DeBeer's to Congress: It's time to make diamonds and jewelry ownership a national priority.
Thoroughbread breeders of America: It's time to make horse ownership and racing a national priority.
I guess if all you have in your hands is a deflated bubble, your only hope is to get someone else to blow it up for you.
Wait a minute...isn’t this mindset how we got into the housing fiasco to begin with? Down the rabbit hole.
Yes, this bill seeks to reinflate the bubble.
Call your Congressman frequently, telling him to:
A) Throw all lobbyists out of his office, regardless of who they represent. All communications with lobby groups should be i) completely and immediately public and ii) only initiated by them as a request for info, the Congressman should never respond to requests initiated by lobbyists. All this implies that the Congressman would have a clue about what to do, so in most cases, today’s Congress critters are not up to the job.
B) Only sponsor and only vote for one type of legislation: that which repeals existing legislation.
C) support a Constitutional amendment to prohibit government borrowing during peacetime.
D) Reduce spending to what revenue is coming in, and start the reductions by eliminating agencies and welfare of any and all kinds.
The builders got their money. The banks and taxpayers are the ones holding the empty moneybag.
Been tried already but if you are up for stated, no interstate loans I might be tempted to jump in....
Here we go again. The best way for the housing market to stabilize and adapt to supply/demand is to get the fedguv out of it - all the way out.
I’m with you. I don’t want to live anywhere near an interstate.
But, but I though private businesses were doing fine?!?
One of America's strengths is a mobile work force.
You can't be mobile tied to a mortgage.
Unless you plan on being in the same place for at least seven years, renting is probably the financially superiror thing to do, if you have the discipline to save the difference between your rent payment and what a mortgage payment would be. There are transaction costs in buying and selling. Yes, I know you can make money in a bubble, but people get caught on both ends of bubbles.
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