Housing Industry The American People Can't Get A Break!

JimofPennsylvan

Platinum Member
Jun 6, 2007
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A really lousy development is currently taking place in America. We have close to historically low home mortgage interest rates brought about by the activities of the Federal Reserve Board in their effort to protect the economy from the economic turmoil caused by the Covid 19 pandemic but there is a shortage of homes for sale in America and banks have tightened up lending standards, understandably they don't want a repeat of the 2008/2009 mortgage loan crisis, excluding a large group of Americans from being able to get home loans that in normal times would qualify. On top of that for home buyers, home prices are skyrocketing because of the shortage of supply the average price of a home in America has risen by double digits in the last twelve months. Can't Congress help these Americans take advantage of this once in a generation tremendous opportunity to acquire a home which will make a profound difference for good in these family's economic wealth across their lives? One doesn't see much opportunity for Congress to be able to quickly bring on line a significant increase in the supply of "new" homes because of the dearth of skilled workers to build homes (that workforce never returned in numbers since the downturn in the building industry from the Great Recession), there is a shortage of land to build in most areas, local government regulation costs for home builders have steeply risen and the price of building materials has dramatically increased recently because of increase in demand! That is not to say that Congress couldn't step up and help reduce the problem in even a few material ways!

Some potential borrowers are being denied home loans because they availed themselves of the forbearance on school loans created by Washington's emergency efforts to respond to the pandemic; Congress by law could ban banks and home loan providers from considering that fact in evaluating a home loan application - on the whole this factor is not material on whether a home loan borrower is going to default on their loan. Congress could for this year and the following two years double the capital gain exclusion on the sale of home loans currently it is 250 K of the profit from the sale that can be shielded from the capital gains tax, doubling it would shield 500 K of profit; that would incentivize some home owners to sell especially older ones who because of their age are looking to get out of their large home and the burden that is involved in taking care of such a home and that the existing home may not be set up for their current health status, for example, they cannot use stairs. Although this government policy change will not directly solve the problem where there is a shortage of entry level homes on the market like one's in the 300 K price range what this policy change will do is that it will increase the supply of high end homes which will incentivize current owners of entry level homes to move out of their current home and upgrade to a higher quality home thus indirectly increasing the supply of entry level homes on the market. The American people need to keep in mind that this low home mortgage rate window will only last at most until some time into 2023, just last month the number of jobs created in the economy was in the 900,000 range and we are only now down eight million jobs from right before the pandemic so two years from today the employment numbers should be back to normal and the rationale for historically low interest rates will be gone and so interest rates will normalize! The third thing that Congress could do is allow people to combine three years worth of gift tax exclusion into one year if the gift is for a down payment for a home loan and the giftee, the home buyer, has an income under 100K. Currently, the gift tax exclusion is for 15K per year per person, this change would allow a young borrower to have at least 45 K as a down payment it would go a long way to enabling these home buyers to having a twenty percent of the home purchase price down payment which is a threshold a lot of lenders require to provide a home loan. This policy change would probably move a significant number of families where grandmom and/or granddad is pushing 80 years of age so therefore doesn't have too much longer to live and has been financially lucky in life and is going to leave the majority of their wealth to their children and grandchildren anyway to help out their grandchild get a good start in the beginning of their life by facilitating them becoming a homeowner. To stop gamesmanship, the IRS could have a form on their website that a giftor and giftee have to electronically sign confirming the transaction and requiring the monies provided by the giftor going directly to the seller of the home, of course it could be routed through a bank, and documents confirming the transaction would have to be uploaded by the parties - in todays world uploading is common place e.g. getting tax credits for health insurance on the state exchanges! Part of the problem in America is that so many of her citizens live in economic hardship, hey members of Congress there is no silver bullet to solve this problem it is a lot of little government policy changes like voila that is going to remedy this really wrong situation; how about it Congress could you provide a helping hand here!
 
A really lousy development is currently taking place in America. We have close to historically low home mortgage interest rates brought about by the activities of the Federal Reserve Board in their effort to protect the economy from the economic turmoil caused by the Covid 19 pandemic but there is a shortage of homes for sale in America and banks have tightened up lending standards, understandably they don't want a repeat of the 2008/2009 mortgage loan crisis, excluding a large group of Americans from being able to get home loans that in normal times would qualify. On top of that for home buyers, home prices are skyrocketing because of the shortage of supply the average price of a home in America has risen by double digits in the last twelve months. Can't Congress help these Americans take advantage of this once in a generation tremendous opportunity to acquire a home which will make a profound difference for good in these family's economic wealth across their lives? One doesn't see much opportunity for Congress to be able to quickly bring on line a significant increase in the supply of "new" homes because of the dearth of skilled workers to build homes (that workforce never returned in numbers since the downturn in the building industry from the Great Recession), there is a shortage of land to build in most areas, local government regulation costs for home builders have steeply risen and the price of building materials has dramatically increased recently because of increase in demand! That is not to say that Congress couldn't step up and help reduce the problem in even a few material ways!

Some potential borrowers are being denied home loans because they availed themselves of the forbearance on school loans created by Washington's emergency efforts to respond to the pandemic; Congress by law could ban banks and home loan providers from considering that fact in evaluating a home loan application - on the whole this factor is not material on whether a home loan borrower is going to default on their loan. Congress could for this year and the following two years double the capital gain exclusion on the sale of home loans currently it is 250 K of the profit from the sale that can be shielded from the capital gains tax, doubling it would shield 500 K of profit; that would incentivize some home owners to sell especially older ones who because of their age are looking to get out of their large home and the burden that is involved in taking care of such a home and that the existing home may not be set up for their current health status, for example, they cannot use stairs. Although this government policy change will not directly solve the problem where there is a shortage of entry level homes on the market like one's in the 300 K price range what this policy change will do is that it will increase the supply of high end homes which will incentivize current owners of entry level homes to move out of their current home and upgrade to a higher quality home thus indirectly increasing the supply of entry level homes on the market. The American people need to keep in mind that this low home mortgage rate window will only last at most until some time into 2023, just last month the number of jobs created in the economy was in the 900,000 range and we are only now down eight million jobs from right before the pandemic so two years from today the employment numbers should be back to normal and the rationale for historically low interest rates will be gone and so interest rates will normalize! The third thing that Congress could do is allow people to combine three years worth of gift tax exclusion into one year if the gift is for a down payment for a home loan and the giftee, the home buyer, has an income under 100K. Currently, the gift tax exclusion is for 15K per year per person, this change would allow a young borrower to have at least 45 K as a down payment it would go a long way to enabling these home buyers to having a twenty percent of the home purchase price down payment which is a threshold a lot of lenders require to provide a home loan. This policy change would probably move a significant number of families where grandmom and/or granddad is pushing 80 years of age so therefore doesn't have too much longer to live and has been financially lucky in life and is going to leave the majority of their wealth to their children and grandchildren anyway to help out their grandchild get a good start in the beginning of their life by facilitating them becoming a homeowner. To stop gamesmanship, the IRS could have a form on their website that a giftor and giftee have to electronically sign confirming the transaction and requiring the monies provided by the giftor going directly to the seller of the home, of course it could be routed through a bank, and documents confirming the transaction would have to be uploaded by the parties - in todays world uploading is common place e.g. getting tax credits for health insurance on the state exchanges! Part of the problem in America is that so many of her citizens live in economic hardship, hey members of Congress there is no silver bullet to solve this problem it is a lot of little government policy changes like voila that is going to remedy this really wrong situation; how about it Congress could you provide a helping hand here!
Down here in Florida the housing market is just great. New homes going up all over, infrastructure being put in place, existing home sales are quick to turn over. Now if you are in a prog state, must suck to be you. Move.....
 
A really lousy development is currently taking place in America. We have close to historically low home mortgage interest rates brought about by the activities of the Federal Reserve Board in their effort to protect the economy from the economic turmoil caused by the Covid 19 pandemic but there is a shortage of homes for sale in America and banks have tightened up lending standards, understandably they don't want a repeat of the 2008/2009 mortgage loan crisis, excluding a large group of Americans from being able to get home loans that in normal times would qualify. On top of that for home buyers, home prices are skyrocketing because of the shortage of supply the average price of a home in America has risen by double digits in the last twelve months. Can't Congress help these Americans take advantage of this once in a generation tremendous opportunity to acquire a home which will make a profound difference for good in these family's economic wealth across their lives? One doesn't see much opportunity for Congress to be able to quickly bring on line a significant increase in the supply of "new" homes because of the dearth of skilled workers to build homes (that workforce never returned in numbers since the downturn in the building industry from the Great Recession), there is a shortage of land to build in most areas, local government regulation costs for home builders have steeply risen and the price of building materials has dramatically increased recently because of increase in demand! That is not to say that Congress couldn't step up and help reduce the problem in even a few material ways!

Some potential borrowers are being denied home loans because they availed themselves of the forbearance on school loans created by Washington's emergency efforts to respond to the pandemic; Congress by law could ban banks and home loan providers from considering that fact in evaluating a home loan application - on the whole this factor is not material on whether a home loan borrower is going to default on their loan. Congress could for this year and the following two years double the capital gain exclusion on the sale of home loans currently it is 250 K of the profit from the sale that can be shielded from the capital gains tax, doubling it would shield 500 K of profit; that would incentivize some home owners to sell especially older ones who because of their age are looking to get out of their large home and the burden that is involved in taking care of such a home and that the existing home may not be set up for their current health status, for example, they cannot use stairs. Although this government policy change will not directly solve the problem where there is a shortage of entry level homes on the market like one's in the 300 K price range what this policy change will do is that it will increase the supply of high end homes which will incentivize current owners of entry level homes to move out of their current home and upgrade to a higher quality home thus indirectly increasing the supply of entry level homes on the market. The American people need to keep in mind that this low home mortgage rate window will only last at most until some time into 2023, just last month the number of jobs created in the economy was in the 900,000 range and we are only now down eight million jobs from right before the pandemic so two years from today the employment numbers should be back to normal and the rationale for historically low interest rates will be gone and so interest rates will normalize! The third thing that Congress could do is allow people to combine three years worth of gift tax exclusion into one year if the gift is for a down payment for a home loan and the giftee, the home buyer, has an income under 100K. Currently, the gift tax exclusion is for 15K per year per person, this change would allow a young borrower to have at least 45 K as a down payment it would go a long way to enabling these home buyers to having a twenty percent of the home purchase price down payment which is a threshold a lot of lenders require to provide a home loan. This policy change would probably move a significant number of families where grandmom and/or granddad is pushing 80 years of age so therefore doesn't have too much longer to live and has been financially lucky in life and is going to leave the majority of their wealth to their children and grandchildren anyway to help out their grandchild get a good start in the beginning of their life by facilitating them becoming a homeowner. To stop gamesmanship, the IRS could have a form on their website that a giftor and giftee have to electronically sign confirming the transaction and requiring the monies provided by the giftor going directly to the seller of the home, of course it could be routed through a bank, and documents confirming the transaction would have to be uploaded by the parties - in todays world uploading is common place e.g. getting tax credits for health insurance on the state exchanges! Part of the problem in America is that so many of her citizens live in economic hardship, hey members of Congress there is no silver bullet to solve this problem it is a lot of little government policy changes like voila that is going to remedy this really wrong situation; how about it Congress could you provide a helping hand here!

Congress cannot mandate that I sell my home just because someone else wants to buy it. Yes, the market is booming. Houses in my area are flying off the proverbial shelf so to speak and doing so at inflated prices. Timing is everything. I bought my house at a REO property at auction for less than 50% assessed value, and I could have gotten it at 25% except some prick kept running up the bids. A relative provided the financing but I had been pre-approved for a mortgage well more than the assessed value of the one I bought.

I really have no sympathy for people who want something handed to them on a silver platter. I spent a few years looking at houses and working to boost my credit scores before I ever even attempted to buy a property and I don't want a neighbor who can't really afford the house they bought. Those are the type of people always blaming someone else for every little thing in the world.
 
A really lousy development is currently taking place in America. We have close to historically low home mortgage interest rates brought about by the activities of the Federal Reserve Board in their effort to protect the economy from the economic turmoil caused by the Covid 19 pandemic but there is a shortage of homes for sale in America and banks have tightened up lending standards, understandably they don't want a repeat of the 2008/2009 mortgage loan crisis, excluding a large group of Americans from being able to get home loans that in normal times would qualify. On top of that for home buyers, home prices are skyrocketing because of the shortage of supply the average price of a home in America has risen by double digits in the last twelve months. Can't Congress help these Americans take advantage of this once in a generation tremendous opportunity to acquire a home which will make a profound difference for good in these family's economic wealth across their lives? One doesn't see much opportunity for Congress to be able to quickly bring on line a significant increase in the supply of "new" homes because of the dearth of skilled workers to build homes (that workforce never returned in numbers since the downturn in the building industry from the Great Recession), there is a shortage of land to build in most areas, local government regulation costs for home builders have steeply risen and the price of building materials has dramatically increased recently because of increase in demand! That is not to say that Congress couldn't step up and help reduce the problem in even a few material ways!

Some potential borrowers are being denied home loans because they availed themselves of the forbearance on school loans created by Washington's emergency efforts to respond to the pandemic; Congress by law could ban banks and home loan providers from considering that fact in evaluating a home loan application - on the whole this factor is not material on whether a home loan borrower is going to default on their loan. Congress could for this year and the following two years double the capital gain exclusion on the sale of home loans currently it is 250 K of the profit from the sale that can be shielded from the capital gains tax, doubling it would shield 500 K of profit; that would incentivize some home owners to sell especially older ones who because of their age are looking to get out of their large home and the burden that is involved in taking care of such a home and that the existing home may not be set up for their current health status, for example, they cannot use stairs. Although this government policy change will not directly solve the problem where there is a shortage of entry level homes on the market like one's in the 300 K price range what this policy change will do is that it will increase the supply of high end homes which will incentivize current owners of entry level homes to move out of their current home and upgrade to a higher quality home thus indirectly increasing the supply of entry level homes on the market. The American people need to keep in mind that this low home mortgage rate window will only last at most until some time into 2023, just last month the number of jobs created in the economy was in the 900,000 range and we are only now down eight million jobs from right before the pandemic so two years from today the employment numbers should be back to normal and the rationale for historically low interest rates will be gone and so interest rates will normalize! The third thing that Congress could do is allow people to combine three years worth of gift tax exclusion into one year if the gift is for a down payment for a home loan and the giftee, the home buyer, has an income under 100K. Currently, the gift tax exclusion is for 15K per year per person, this change would allow a young borrower to have at least 45 K as a down payment it would go a long way to enabling these home buyers to having a twenty percent of the home purchase price down payment which is a threshold a lot of lenders require to provide a home loan. This policy change would probably move a significant number of families where grandmom and/or granddad is pushing 80 years of age so therefore doesn't have too much longer to live and has been financially lucky in life and is going to leave the majority of their wealth to their children and grandchildren anyway to help out their grandchild get a good start in the beginning of their life by facilitating them becoming a homeowner. To stop gamesmanship, the IRS could have a form on their website that a giftor and giftee have to electronically sign confirming the transaction and requiring the monies provided by the giftor going directly to the seller of the home, of course it could be routed through a bank, and documents confirming the transaction would have to be uploaded by the parties - in todays world uploading is common place e.g. getting tax credits for health insurance on the state exchanges! Part of the problem in America is that so many of her citizens live in economic hardship, hey members of Congress there is no silver bullet to solve this problem it is a lot of little government policy changes like voila that is going to remedy this really wrong situation; how about it Congress could you provide a helping hand here!
houses being built all over the Vegas area......and someone is parking in the driveways of the completed ones.....so i dont see this shortage....
 

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