Real Estate Complex goes for 15K credit

[patb]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/business/16home.html?hp

When Congress passed an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers last winter, it was intended as a dose of shock therapy during a crisis. Now the question is becoming whether the housing market can function without it.

As many as 40 percent of all home buyers this year will qualify for the credit. It is on track to cost the government $15 billion, more than twice the amount that was projected when Congress passed the stimulus bill in February.

In the view of the real estate industry and some economists, all that money is well spent. They contend the credit is doing what it was meant to do, encouraging a recovery in the housing market that is gathering steam. Analysts say the credit is directly responsible for several hundred thousand home sales.

Skeptics argue that most of the money is going to people who would have bought a home anyway. And they contend that unless it is allowed to expire on schedule in late November, the tax credit is likely to become one more expensive government program that refuses to die.

The real estate industry, including the powerful 1.1 million-member National Association of Realtors, wants Congress to extend the credit at least through next summer. The group hopes to expand the program to $15,000 and to allow all buyers, not just those who have been out of the market for at least three years, to qualify. The price tag on that plan: $50 billion to $100 billion.

This is as much money as fixing health care will cost

[jpinpb]

So when this 15k runs out, do we up it to 20k? Or is that about the time that inflation kicks in? Or is that when the floor finally collapses?

I remember reading about how August sales were great thanks to Cash for Clunkers. I wonder how sales will be the rest of the year.

The boost to housing or car sales w/government assistance will help as it’s supposed to. But what happens when the government stops funneling money? Or as the story suggests, will it just be a program that never ends.

[jpinpb]

So when this 15k runs out, do we up it to 20k? Or is that about the time that inflation kicks in? Or is that when the floor finally collapses?

I remember reading about how August sales were great thanks to Cash for Clunkers. I wonder how sales will be the rest of the year.

The boost to housing or car sales w/government assistance will help as it’s supposed to. But what happens when the government stops funneling money? Or as the story suggests, will it just be a program that never ends.

[jpinpb]

So when this 15k runs out, do we up it to 20k? Or is that about the time that inflation kicks in? Or is that when the floor finally collapses?

I remember reading about how August sales were great thanks to Cash for Clunkers. I wonder how sales will be the rest of the year.

The boost to housing or car sales w/government assistance will help as it’s supposed to. But what happens when the government stops funneling money? Or as the story suggests, will it just be a program that never ends.

[jpinpb]

So when this 15k runs out, do we up it to 20k? Or is that about the time that inflation kicks in? Or is that when the floor finally collapses?

I remember reading about how August sales were great thanks to Cash for Clunkers. I wonder how sales will be the rest of the year.

The boost to housing or car sales w/government assistance will help as it’s supposed to. But what happens when the government stops funneling money? Or as the story suggests, will it just be a program that never ends.

[jpinpb]

So when this 15k runs out, do we up it to 20k? Or is that about the time that inflation kicks in? Or is that when the floor finally collapses?

I remember reading about how August sales were great thanks to Cash for Clunkers. I wonder how sales will be the rest of the year.

The boost to housing or car sales w/government assistance will help as it’s supposed to. But what happens when the government stops funneling money? Or as the story suggests, will it just be a program that never ends.

[sdduuuude]

Free. Free houses for every one !
Toooootally sustainable, dude. No problemo

[sdduuuude]

Free. Free houses for every one !
Toooootally sustainable, dude. No problemo

[sdduuuude]

Free. Free houses for every one !
Toooootally sustainable, dude. No problemo

[sdduuuude]

Free. Free houses for every one !
Toooootally sustainable, dude. No problemo

[sdduuuude]

Free. Free houses for every one !
Toooootally sustainable, dude. No problemo

[jpinpb]

This just drives me crazy. In one breath Greenspan (perhaps smoking green shoots) says the recession is over. Okay. Let’s go w/it and say unemployment is a lagging indicator. If the recession is over, WHY do we need this continued credit, increased credit, no less.

I just can’t get my head around this. People talking bottom, recession over, sales up, yada, yada, yada, but we need more credit incentives to buy. Psycho babble.

And of course it’s working. People buying cars and houses. The brain washing continues. Resistance is futile.

[jpinpb]

This just drives me crazy. In one breath Greenspan (perhaps smoking green shoots) says the recession is over. Okay. Let’s go w/it and say unemployment is a lagging indicator. If the recession is over, WHY do we need this continued credit, increased credit, no less.

I just can’t get my head around this. People talking bottom, recession over, sales up, yada, yada, yada, but we need more credit incentives to buy. Psycho babble.

And of course it’s working. People buying cars and houses. The brain washing continues. Resistance is futile.

[jpinpb]

This just drives me crazy. In one breath Greenspan (perhaps smoking green shoots) says the recession is over. Okay. Let’s go w/it and say unemployment is a lagging indicator. If the recession is over, WHY do we need this continued credit, increased credit, no less.

I just can’t get my head around this. People talking bottom, recession over, sales up, yada, yada, yada, but we need more credit incentives to buy. Psycho babble.

And of course it’s working. People buying cars and houses. The brain washing continues. Resistance is futile.

[jpinpb]

This just drives me crazy. In one breath Greenspan (perhaps smoking green shoots) says the recession is over. Okay. Let’s go w/it and say unemployment is a lagging indicator. If the recession is over, WHY do we need this continued credit, increased credit, no less.

I just can’t get my head around this. People talking bottom, recession over, sales up, yada, yada, yada, but we need more credit incentives to buy. Psycho babble.

And of course it’s working. People buying cars and houses. The brain washing continues. Resistance is futile.

[Author]

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