If the Feds are not going to come up with a new program, perhaps the States have to come to the table. I did hear Florida's got some great ideas for helping buyers and sellers. Here in New Jersey, the State Assembly and Senate put something together but the Governor felt it was too expensive (it needs tweaking, it is too expensive). My opinion is that it's biggest problem is that 75% of the funding will be for new construction--$15,000 over 3 years. This is a heavy burden on the State and really not enough money in to help our new construction market. Here, most new construction is very expensive, usually a luxury product. New construction is not going to be resurrected while so many younger resales are being given away in short-sales and forelcosures. Of course, there will always be the "I only buy new" buyer, but as residential resales increase and inventory goes down, this recovery will trickle down to new construction.
State and federal legislators need to to work together and focus on helping people sell their homes to buyers that can afford them. Perhaps a sellers' tax credit or tax deduction would be very help sellers to fix their homes to sell or bridge their loss a bit. that could be over a few years. But the buyers need a credit for closing costs, for them waiting 3 years is too far in the future.
We all need to contact our legislators (State and Federal) and keep hounding them for whatever help we can get. While your hounding them about that really hound them asking for a real effort to be put forth to create and protect jobs that still exist. This will also help the real estate industry and the country. Jobs are key to any real economic recovery, the rest will come together as we straighten out the banking debacle and decrease inventory.
Anita Derlng, Weichert Realtors
Feel free to call me 732-682-5051 with any questions or comments.
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