GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Our Main Goal: Housing Affordability
The Greater Lansing Home Builders & Remodelers Association (GLHB&RA) wants to keep housing affordable for everyone. Unnecessary, burdensome, or extreme regulation simply adds to the cost and time of developing land and housing. In the end, everyone pays for this through higher lot and housing costs. The Committee is instrumental in helping GLHB&RA reach this goal.
Fix Housing First
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is spearheading Fix Housing First, one of the largest coalitions of housing advocates ever assembled in the United States, to push for a housing recovery plan that will revive the economy.
Fix Housing First, which consists of more than 600 organizations, home building companies and manufacturers continues to add new members on a daily basis, is pressing for a major stimulus package to stem the decline in home values, stabilize financial markets and revitalize consumer demand. To get the economy moving again, the coalition is urging Congress to support enhancements to the home buyer tax credit and provide below-market 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for home purchases.
The coalition cites a similar plan that worked in 1975, when the nation was also in the midst of a recession. Congress then passed a short-term $2,000 tax credit for all new homes ($12,000 adjusted for today's median home prices) along with subsidized mortgage rates. The stimulus jump-started the depressed economy and the effects continued long after the measure expired.
The coalition is calling for significant enhancements to the current $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers. Among the improvements:
- All primary home purchases between April 9, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009 would be eligible.
- The credit amount would be increased to 10 percent of the price of the home, capped at 3.5 percent of FHA loan limits, bringing the credit to a range of roughly between $10,000 and $22,000.
- The current recapture provision would be eliminated. Repayment would only be required if the home were sold within three years.
- The credit would be available at the time of closing, making it easier to be used as a downpayment.
The second component of the stimulus plan would provide qualified home buyers with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at 2.99 percent on contracts closed until June 30, 2009 and 3.99 percent on closings between June 30 and Dec. 31, 2009.
The coalition has also announced its support for continuing foreclosure prevention measures to keep people in their homes.
Fix Housing First points out that 3 million home building-related jobs 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. Deterioration in these jobs has now spilled over into virtually all sectors of the U.S. job market.
To learn more about Fix Housing First, go to www.fixhousingfirst.com.
Clinton County- Flood Risk Information Open House
Select the Geographic Area of interest below:
State of Michigan
Ingham County
Meridian Township
Clinton County
U.S. Senate
|
