“Kicking The Can,” A Favorite Political Pastime

John,

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Our gov tries to do their best as well as please every one who elected them, so these are the results!

For those of us who work short sales and foreclosures it was a great thing. Young people borrowed from their parents, asked the sellers for closing cost, and now have money for furniture with the $8000. So after the subprime, alt-a, adjustable rates, and negative ams come home to roost, I can be assured that my specialty will continue on as they futuree forclosures of America hit the market. Oh Joy.

Ironically in our area the tax credit helped Seller's extract extra dollars out of Buyers pockets(alot of their $ 8,000 credit) by creating a temporary Seller's market from 3/1 - 4/30 !!!! Of course these UA's still have to appraise !!!!

Great post , we simply can not increase overhead to get out of debt !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a great first quarter but a major slow down in the past couple of weeks. No way to tell when and if it will improve.

John - I think that the real picture will not show up for a few weeks. We need to understand if the flurry accelerated just a few weeks worth of buyers or months, even years. I believe that it is probably somewhere in between the few weeks and several months acceleration.

The housing is not going to change until employment numbers get better.  

John,

Now that the government has largely extracted itself from the housing market - no more mortgage securities buying, no more tax credits etc. - we'll find out how well the private sector will do to turn this thing around. It'll probably be a long and slow process.

Has anybody here on Active Rain actually been reading the news and watching the numbers over the past few months?  We have added over 500,000 jobs in the past three months alone (and no, they are not all Census workers).  The latest foreclosure report shows the number of homes in foreclosure was down 2% from last year.  ALL of the automakers, including GM, are reporting better than expected earnings/sales.  And we're well past the Cash for Clunkers programs.  The latest Case/Schiller home index showed 19 of the 20 metropolitans areas examined have show price INCREASES in the first quarter of 2010.  Retail sales are up all over the country and consumer confidence is improving.  What more do you folks want? Our economy took such an incredibly steep dive in 2008/09. It is going to take a while to pull out of it completely. We personally have not seen any fall off in activity since the deadline for the tax credit expired.  In fact we've had several of our clients who would have been eligible tell us they didn't care about the tax credit, they just wanted to find the right house.  For as much as I read on Active Rain how a positive attitude is essential in the real estate industry we sure do have a lot of negative Nellies around here.  Best of luck to all of you.

John: Great analogy. Obviously crutches only work for a short period of time. Then we need to learn how to walk on our own!

We have not experienced a slow down since the credit ended. Most of the buyers I had were going to buy anyway when they found the right house.

Wasted money in my opinion with the credit.

John,

The thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is Greece and the other members of PIIGS. This is sure to have an impact on us. Canada is projected to be on the hook for $50 billion, because we belong to the "club". IMF.

John.....Why are they playing with this thing? It has to be fixed not band-aided. I keep telling people that all the known rules are being redefined and new ones introduced. I really don't think anyone can say for sure what IS going on with any certainty. Your post points us in the direction of the question.......Thank you John

Did anyone really think it would help?  I remember NAR touting that something like 68,000 REALTORS had logged into REATOR.org  and voted in favor of extending and expanding the tax credit.  I also remember that there was no option to vote AGAINST the tax credit. 

NAR and Congress need to stop worrying about the few and do what is good for the financial health and stability of the Nation.