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Major Blitz Urges Central Role for Housing in Stimulus Plan
In a major blitz to make housing a central part of the new economic stimulus package, NAHB and its allies in the Fix Housing First coalition will be converging on Capitol Hill during the first week of January to champion an aggressive plan that would create jobs and stimulate home sales in 2009.
“Congress must address the root problems of rising foreclosures, declining home values and falling home sales — all of which are killing the economy, undermining the financial system and resulting in hundreds of thousands of layoffs month after month,” said NAHB Chairman Sandy Dunn. “That’s the message we will be delivering when more than 150 builders come to Washington January 7 in a targeted fly-in focused on key members of Congress.”
To restore confidence and get buyers back in the housing market, moves that Dunn claimed “would help slow foreclosures and put a cushion under property values,” NAHB is calling on Congress to buy down mortgage rates as low as 2.99% and expand and broaden the tax credit for home buyers enacted earlier this year. In addition, NAHB is supporting the proposed FDIC foreclosure relief proposal that could be funded out of the $350 billion still remaining in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) administered by the Treasury Department.
Enactment of an expanded tax credit along with the mortgage buy-down program would create 600,000 jobs with a payroll of $29 billion and generate 1.2 million additional home sales during the first year, according to an analysis by NAHB economists. A revived housing market would quickly ripple through the entire economy, stabilizing mortgage assets held by financial institutions, generating $23 billion in business activity tied indirectly to the housing market and bolstering federal state and local tax coffers by $21 billion.
To help ensure that housing-recovery measures are incorporated into economic stimulus legislation that will most likely be debated and voted on by Congress in early January, NAHB has mobilized its grassroots network, asking association members to meet with their U.S. senators and representatives while they are home in their states and districts during the holidays.
The Capitol Hill visits in January will be focused on the most influential members of Congress in the stimulus debate, and at this time there are no visits to Washington from NAHB members at large planned.
Visits will target House and Senate leadership, members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, as well as key members of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees. In all, NAHB has identified 90 lawmakers from 38 states.
NAHB’s targeted builder fly-in campaign is being coordinated with Fix Housing First, a coalition led by NAHB that consists of more than 600 organizations, home building companies and manufacturers who are urging Congress to enact bold measures to revive housing and the economy.
To help achieve these goals, builders will be meeting with their elected officials to urge a two-pronged approach, focusing on temporary programs that will strengthen housing demand and promote an economic recovery.
First, Congress should enhance the existing first-time home buyer tax credit by:
- Expanding tax credit eligibility to all buyers of principal residences
- Increasing the credit amount to $10,000 to $22,000 based on local house prices
- Making it a true credit by repealing all recapture rules
- Extending the expiration date to Dec. 31, 2009
- Increasing income phase-outs to $125,000 ($250,000 for married taxpayers); and
- Allowing the credit to be claimed at settlement to be used as a downpayment
The second component of the stimulus plan would provide home buyers with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at 2.99% on contracts closed through June 30, 2009 and 3.99% on closings between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2009.
The coalition has also announced its support for continuing foreclosure prevention measures to keep people in their homes.
For information on visiting members of Congress over the holiday recess, visit www.capitolconnect.com/builderlink.
NAHB President and CEO Jerry Howard recently appeared on Bloomberg Television to discuss what Congress and the new Administration need to do to solve the nation’s housing crisis and put the national economy on the road to recovery. Along with links to comprehensive information on participating in the Fix Housing First campaign, the video has been posted on the home page of NAHB’s Web site (www.nahb.org). It also has been posted on YouTube. To see the video, click here.
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