NBN Online for the week of September 26, 2005

Builders Voice Concern Over Eminent Domain Abuse

Responding to Supreme Court decisions this summer with an adverse impact on private property rights, the NAHB Board of Directors at its fall meeting earlier this month in Reno, Nev. approved policy in support of legislation to keep state and local governments from abusing their power of eminent domain and to provide landowners with access to the federal courts in takings cases.

The court’s ruling in Kelo v. City of New London confirmed that private property may be taken from one private property owner and transferred to another “if the government merely pronounces that doing so will benefit the community economically by increased tax revenue or more job opportunities,” the resolution notes.

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Real Estate Analysts Find Scant Housing Bubble Evidence

Scrutinizing the imputed cost of owning a single-family house compared to renting the same unit in 46 metropolitan areas over the past 25 years, a paper prepared for the current fall issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives concludes that there was little evidence of a housing bubble at the end of last year.