Fergasun Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Link... you gotta be kidding me... As a longtime realtor in Cobb County, Sen. Johnny Isakson has seen housing downturns before. "We had recessions in 1968, 1974, 1982, and 1991, by every measurement, this is going to be a deeper and bigger recession in residential housing. It's a significant event." Isakson is pitching an idea to his colleagues in Congress: a $15,000 tax rebate check to anyone who agrees to buy a home. Congressional budget analysts project the program would cost $14 billion over the next few years. But Isakson said the rebate checks are well worth the hefty price tag. "If we can convince buyers to come back to the marketplace and buy these houses, then the houses aren't vacant. It's replaced by an owner-occupant, who is there making payments on a loan and helping all of the other houses around." Senate Republican leaders have signed on to the rebate check idea. But they have to corral support from Democrats. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is instead pushing a foreclosure relief proposal called The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, which would offer $4 billion to cities to rehab or knock down foreclosed properties.Do any of these people care that the dollar is collapsing and our economy has tanked WHILE MOST OF THEM ARE LEADING THE FLIPPING COUNTRY! I think there needs to be traction in the "vote out the incumbents" movement... seriously... does anyone think this is a great idea for the country? So here in Southern California you'd get like a 2% tax-rebate? Hah! I'm afraid I no longer live in the country by grandparents lived in and my parents raised. Hey boomers, you guys have screwed things up by not paying attention and allowing Congress to be taken over by a bunch of greedy ****s who don't care about the common folk. It's not about Democrat vs. Republican anymore... we need a third party... the Common Effing Sense party. What an awful idea... who benefits from this? Why artificially try to keep housing prices high? If they did this the only people who would benefit would be places that didn't have a bubble... and sellers would just hold their asking price at $15k higher... don't need to be an economic major to know this.... yeegads... we are in trouble because everyone is watching American Idol rather than keeping an eye on what those rat-finks are doing with our money!!!! No, no no no no no! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosher Ham Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Home owners spend more money IMO. The dollar falling has little to do with housing. Again IMO. Homeowners would benefit, businesses would certainly benefit, schools would benefit, etc. Housing prices are market driven. The house I own in Charlotte would be 2-3 times more expensive in CA, MA, DC, MD, VA, etc. Thus the reason I plan on buying a few more soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THEArmchairQB Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 :cheers:to the OP Homeowners would benefit, businesses would certainly benefit, schools would benefit, etc. True, but it would be an atificial benefit. Where is the money going to come from? Are they going to raise taxes? Of course not that would be taking money out of our pockets. So where else would this 15k credit come from? Tapping into our already outrageous 9.4 trillion dollar debt. This is a bandaid fix. This is only an attempt by the current congress to stave off their inevitable end and it will leave the new guard holding the ****ing giant debt slip. What possible reason would the government have to subsidize the housing market? Only to hold off the recession that is already baring down upon us. Say this plan is implemented. At the end of the year it will be touted as a sucess, that we beat the recession. BULL****! Check out these facts from the good ole wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt#Amount_of_foreign_ownership_of_U.S._debt The US debt in the hands of foreign governments is 25% (Thats 2.35 Trillion) of the total, virtually double the 1988 figure of 13%In total, lenders from Japan and China held 47% of the foreign-owned debt. (Thats 1.1 Trillion) If we continue on this course Japan and China will ****ing own us. How rediculous is that! I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I'm pretty sure you can't solve this one by throwing money at it.:2cents: Conservative spending my ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergasun Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 I'm just sad about the future of our country. I'm 28. I just see stupidity all around, especially from our leaders. In the past newspapers, and news TV was able to cover up their stupidity with positive reporting (see yesterdays 400 point gain the the Dow). Now I'm able to get all my news from "Internet specialists". These aren't Tom Brokaw reading a teleprompter, but websites set up by people who are professional economists. It might seem like random pages, but some websites have been reporting on these things for 2-3 years, has been fairly accurate with predictions, and is frequented by knowledgable comment contributors. Following this news even week-week... it's easy to answer... "the falling dollar has little to do with housing." 1) From 2000-2007 home sales skyrocketed due to low interest rates, it was a speculative frenzy. 2) Home prices are set in the margins, so in a certain neighborhood while 25% of homes might've been sold, the other 75% of homes benefited because of showing "paper gains". 3) A record amount of people used their home valuations to tap equity from the home (like a Home Equity Line of Credit). 4) This equity has been used to fuel the economy. It was all done on inflated credit based on the 25% (or maybe 15% or 35%) of the homes that were sold. 5) Banks liked this, so they encouraged more people to buy homes... people thought they would get priced out of the market... so a lot of people who shouldn't have bought homes ended up buying homes. Basically anyone who wanted to own a home got into one... through things like Interest-Only or ARMs (and yes there are benefits to doing ARMs for specific people but California is something like 50% ARM at least). 6) There is now no one left to buy homes... everyone that wanted to buy got in... or... 7) All the buyers now are "smart" and realized that in times of irrational behavior the best thing to do is the opposite of what everyone else is doing. This takes patience... but it should pay off in the next 5 years. 7) And basically all the people who took equity out of their home are now screwed... it was great that the credit limit increased by 100%, but now you've maxed out your credit-card and actually you're over your limit, and even if you sell your home (rip up your credit card) you'll still owe 10-15% of the balance. So I think the belief is that a major portion of consumer spending came from people selling homes, or withdrawing equity from our homes. Now that home values are going down, and there is no more equity to withdraw... there is less consumer spending... because they have less money. Factor in rising gas prices, and rising food prices. I suppose technically the Fed killed the dollar by lowering interest rates... somehow lower interest rates were supposed to spur on consumer spending because we could borrow money cheaper... but now banks don't want to loan people money since a lot of people haven't been able to pay back their loans... opps! We're screwed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosher Ham Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Government spending is the key to it all. Unfortunately the gov spends too much money in other countries, too much money on dealing with other countries, and too much money on many senseless things especially here. It's amazing. I remember reading about 85 elevators in the Ronald Reagan building. Why would you even take that contract ? The war on drugs yet the gov was involved in some of it ? The fact that there is oil in Alaska though it is not utilized to benefit the country ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUSkinsFan Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Last week I was at a presentation with Senator Tom Carper from Delaware and he talked about a program exactly like this, only it gave 5K rebates, not 15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Bait Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 The solution is quite simple..... 1) fair tax.....all the rich folks have high priced lawyers who pretty much get them out of paying taxes. 2) cut the government in half, contract more jobs out. 3) cut government spending in half too much government waste going on. It isn't about Republicans or Democrats anymore.....they all spend way too much money. The dems just appear to be better for the economy because they jack up taxes to pay for their spending. I don't know about you all....but I'm not a big fan of the socialists....this isn't Europe. We can still have relatively low taxes if we cut the BS government spending out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilmer17 Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Awesome. gimme gimme gimme gimme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveakl Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 man, I am going to buy so many 30k crap shacks in the ghetto, get my 15k rebate, tear them all down, and build section 8 condo's Who is in with me!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helptheSKINS Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 More handouts. We've got some great minds in DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Not to be partisan but.... "Senate Republican leaders have signed on to the rebate check idea. But they have to corral support from Democrats...." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilmer17 Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Look, what's the difference between this and giving free meds to people just because they are old? Both are Govt handouts. It's about time I started benefitting. gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stophovr6 Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Where are we going to get the money from? Chinese loans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wskin44 Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Where are we going to get the money from? Chinese loans? Yea, but heck don't worry about it, your children can pay it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stophovr6 Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Yea, but heck don't worry about it, your children can pay it back. I don't think I'll be able to afford those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellis Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 7) And basically all the people who took equity out of their home are now screwed... it was great that the credit limit increased by 100%, but now you've maxed out your credit-card and actually you're over your limit, and even if you sell your home (rip up your credit card) you'll still owe 10-15% of the balance. I generally agree with all of your points but in regards to this one... if you are upsidedown in a mortgage by 10-15%, you can always walk away from the balance as mortgages are typically non-recourse. Sure, it trashes your credit rating but all the lender can do is foreclose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergasun Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 Ellis, But if you take out a HELOC or some other loan against your house do you turn it into a recourse loan? You might... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helptheSKINS Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Not to be partisan but.... "Senate Republican leaders have signed on to the rebate check idea. But they have to corral support from Democrats...." It's a great point to make. I'm conservative and completely agree with you. Both sides seem like they are more interested in digging up ways to get votes then they are doing their jobs. The economy has ups and downs, get over gov't. I have no problem buying shares low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonkeySkin Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Don't blame me, I support Ron Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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