Yesterday, the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development a/k/a HUD , Alphonso Jackson, announced his resignation.  This is a big blow for the Bush administration especially during the current downturn in the housing market.  You can read more on the story in USA Today.  This resignation is also in the wake of allegations of mis-management and "cronyism."

   I understand and admire the Bush adminstration's desire for diversity among his cabinet members. But it would be nice if he appointed someone who has experience in the real estate and mortgage industry. Alphonso Jackson was a corporate CEO prior to becoming the HUD secretary. He also ran the housing department in Austin, Texas during the 1990's. Prior to him, our own Florida Senator Mel Martinez (a former trial lawyer and county commission chairman) was in charge and practically turned HUD into a non-entity by sitting there and doing nothing as FHA mortgages basically became non-existent for about 4 years.  Prior to that under the Clinton Administration, another lawyer/politician Andrew Cuomo was running HUD.

It is high time that we put someone in charge of this department that actually has a background in real estate or mortgages instead of bureaucracy.  That would seem like common sense to anyone except politicians. I am all for diversity, but we also need competence and experience.  That is something we have not had much of in the HUD office in quite some time.

Maybe Washington should re-analyze the whole cabinet position.  Are the American people receiving any significant benefit from the billions of dollars and thousands of employees working from the Department of HUD?  Should the whole department simply be abolished or merged in with some other department? I am really not sure, but the status quo is definitely a big money pit.

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Rob Arnold, ABR, CPL, CRB, GRI, Managing real estate broker, Licensed mortgage broker, Notary Public

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