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samz
Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Posts: 102
Location: Medford, MA
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admin
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Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 1826
Location: Greater Boston
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 Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:19 pm GMT Post subject: |
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This is a really good point that hadn't occurred to me:
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One of the reasons for subsidizing homeownership is the widely held belief that homeowners are good citizens.
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If you think that civic engagement is important enough to justify homeownership subsidies, then we certainly shouldn’t be encouraging excess mobility.
But the new home buyers’ credit does just that.
It subsidizes existing owners to trade up or down, which implicitly encourages people to pull up roots and sever their connections with their existing community. If you ever thought that encouraging civic engagement through housing policy was a good thing, then the current policy will push in exactly the opposite direction.
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samz
Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Posts: 102
Location: Medford, MA
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| Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:34 pm GMT Post subject: |
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| Yeah, it's really shocking how much worse the extended program is than the original program. (I like the fact that the author has data to back it up, too.) |
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admin
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 1826
Location: Greater Boston
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| Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:39 pm GMT Post subject: |
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| samz wrote: | | Yeah, it's really shocking how much worse the extended program is than the original program. (I like the fact that the author has data to back it up, too.) |
This isn't the first expansion, either. Remember back when the tax credit was an interest free loan that needed to be paid pack? Then it was a pure handout. Now it's a handout for those with high incomes and existing homes. Hey, maybe we should all just wait a few more years while it continues to grow - eventually taxpayers will just buy our entire homes for us.
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samz
Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Posts: 102
Location: Medford, MA
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| Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:46 pm GMT Post subject: |
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| admin wrote: | | samz wrote: | | Yeah, it's really shocking how much worse the extended program is than the original program. (I like the fact that the author has data to back it up, too.) |
This isn't the first expansion, either. Remember back when the tax credit was an interest free loan that needed to be paid pack? Then it was a pure handout. Now it's a handout for those with high incomes and existing homes. Hey, maybe we should all just wait a few more years while it continues to grow - eventually taxpayers will just buy our entire homes for us.
- admin |
I know; it's so painful.
I said something like that to a realtor who was pushing me to buy before the current program expired. She was trying to make it sound urgent. Yeah, right.
I love the idea of temporarily exchanging houses with a friend. You probably don't even have to move out to make the scam work.
I also suspect that this new program is very bad for Boston because it makes it that much easier to get out of this hellacious market. |
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admin
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 1826
Location: Greater Boston
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| Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:18 pm GMT Post subject: |
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| samz wrote: |
I also suspect that this new program is very bad for Boston because it makes it that much easier to get out of this hellacious market. |
Oh, that's another good point that hadn't occurred to me. The expansion of the credit to existing owners will encourage excess mobility, and people may take advantage of that to get out of high cost areas. I thought that the credit would continue to inflate prices (and to an irrational degree for as long as people can be fooled into having a sense of urgency), but the expansion to existing owners makes it a real wild card. It could actually depress prices, especially over the long term.
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balor123
Joined: 08 Mar 2008
Posts: 1204
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:07 am GMT Post subject: |
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| admin wrote: | This isn't the first expansion, either. Remember back when the tax credit was an interest free loan that needed to be paid pack? Then it was a pure handout. Now it's a handout for those with high incomes and existing homes. Hey, maybe we should all just wait a few more years while it continues to grow - eventually taxpayers will just buy our entire homes for us.
- admin |
I believe there was a woman on CNN who had a similar idea. She said people in her town are struggling to buy jackets to keep warm. Her idea for fixing the economy was for the government to give every citizen $50k. |
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balor123
Joined: 08 Mar 2008
Posts: 1204
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:09 am GMT Post subject: |
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| samz wrote: |
I know; it's so painful.
I said something like that to a realtor who was pushing me to buy before the current program expired. She was trying to make it sound urgent. Yeah, right. |
Haven't you seen that Coldwell banker commercial? It says that no matter what else, it's important that we never stop moving. Yeah. Um, why? |
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admin
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 1826
Location: Greater Boston
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:30 am GMT Post subject: |
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| balor123 wrote: |
I believe there was a woman on CNN who had a similar idea. She said people in her town are struggling to buy jackets to keep warm. Her idea for fixing the economy was for the government to give every citizen $50k. |
That could actually work, though not for the reason she suspects. People could burn their dollars for heat.
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