NBN Online for the week of January 28, 2008

More Stimulus Needed to Stabilize Housing and Economy

On Jan. 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), along with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, announced an agreement on an economic stimulus package that would permanently raise the FHA loan limit from the current $367,000 to a maximum of $729,750. It would also provide a one-year increase in Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac's conforming loan limit, from $417,000 to a maximum of $729,750.

The package would also provide businesses a 50% bonus depreciation in 2008 and increase the current Section 179 expensing limit for small businesses.

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Lumber Prices Provided by Random Lengths

NAHB Branding Online Survey Coming Soon

NAHB members are encouraged to fill out an online Web-based survey on NAHB branding that will be sent via e-mail and arriving in members’ inboxes soon. Member feedback is crucial to the NAHB branding effort now underway.

The survey should take 10 minutes or less to complete. All answers are confidential.

St. Louis Builders Stand Up to Unbalanced News Reporting

In response to a particularly negative story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch distorting conditions in the area’s housing market, the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri took action and provided information that enabled the newspaper’s real estate editor to write a more accurate and balanced follow-up.

National reporting on the current housing slowdown has become a frustrating challenge for local builders as dire and exaggerated headlines discourage prospective buyers from exploring favorable home buying opportunities in the local market.