Our current oversupply of housing will keep home prices down for a long time to come.
How do you stop the foreclosure process? That to me seems like a good start in getting a floor under housing.
Another thing that isn’t being talked about is how do we support economic growth as the solution to our problems? Yes, we are in a recessionary spiral and in the next year we will see some negative GDP numbers. However, what if the government were to do the following:
1) Immediate cut on marginal tax rates
2) Immediate elimination of capital gains taxes for say 2 years? (And no whining when it expires please)
3) Immediate allowance for all investment losses to be deducted in one to two years instead of capping them at $3K per year.
4) Elimination of mark to market standards. Every time someone else writes down their assets that means someone else has to as well. That can mean a good bank loses capital to loan out.
5) Tax breaks for any company that invests in distressed assets. This might be a way to reward risky investing but if a private entitiy is buying then that’s better than Uncle Sam.
Hey,why don't we help some of our troops in Iraq and Afghanastan obtain these homes?They're coming home sometime and they'll need jobs and homes to come home to.Troops get homes,house prices settle.It's a win/win and if I'm going to bail out anyone,giving US combat soldiers the assets for their sacrifice sounds damn good to me.