NAR Makes Big Push for ‘Four-Point Plan’

From Real Estate Daily News:

Can the federal government afford to pass yet another stimulus measure, this one aimed directly at getting the housing market moving? NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® leaders say the government can’t afford not to.

The association has crafted a four-point housing recovery plan and is making an all-out push to get it through Congress. At the REALTORS® Conference & Expo in Orlando next week, NAR members will be wearing “I support the four-point plan” buttons to voice their support.

The House That NAR Built

In addition, REALTORS® will have the opportunity to sign a giant model house on the Expo floor emblazoned with the slogan, “We support the NAR housing stimulus plan.”

After the conference, the house will be dismantled, shipped to Washington, D.C., and reconstructed in an as-yet-unnamed spot. It’s a publicity stunt, to be sure, but one that REALTORS® are hoping will get legislators’ attention.

Banks begin receiving cash injections this week as part of the massive $700 billion federal rescue bill, and REALTORS® want that money used for lending to qualified home buyers.

Outrage from Lawmakers

REALTORS® aren’t the only ones concerned about how the banks will use those funds. Senate Banking Committee Chair Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who helped fashion the rescue package expressed outrage at a credit-crisis hearing last week, saying: “Those lenders who will be receiving billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers are considering using those dollars not to make loans, but rather to pursue ’some acquisition opportunities’ and to create a capital ‘cushion’ on which they will comfortably sit while the American consumer and small business person struggles.”

The desire to restart bank lending was core to the government’s goal in passing its rescue bill.

In addition to the provision calling on banks to use the funds for lending, NAR’s four-point plan calls for:

• Expanding the $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit to all buyers and eliminating that program’s repayment requirement.
• Making permanent the prohibition against banks entering real estate brokerage and management.
• Making permanent the high-cost conforming loan limit of $729,750. That limit has been in effect for less than a year and is scheduled to drop to $625,500 on Jan. 1, 2009. NAR analysts say the higher limit, to be effective, needs more time to work.

— By Robert Freedman