Home Ownership Tops Bush Housing Agenda

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Nov. 19, 2004

Home Ownership Tops Bush Housing Agenda

GENARO C. ARMAS

Associated Press


WASHINGTON - Boosting homeownership tops President Bush's housing agenda, but the biggest battle facing his administration during the second term is how to overhaul a program that helps 2 million poor families pay their rent.Besides making changes to that program, Bush wants a new tax credit for builders that he thinks could increase affordable housing for middle-income families by at least 40,000 units a year.

The president also wants to reduce local and state regulations that discourage developers from putting up affordable housing. A separate proposal would create zero down-payment loans for first-time buyers whose mortgages are guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration.

Successes could help Bush reach the goal, which he set in his first term, of 5.5 million new minority homeowners by decade's end. The Housing and Urban Development Department said about 1.9 million have been added so far.

Since Bush took office in 2001, the percentage of U.S. homes that are owned has grown from 67.5 percent to 69 percent today. Democrats contend that record-low interest rates during the period were the main reason; the president has said his tax relief programs provided a big boost, too.
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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10220852.htm
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[MidwestTransplant]

1. 40,000 familes is a few city blocks worth of people in many cities.

Doesn't sound very ambitious to me.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

11. or about 110 families per every metro statistical area

there are 362.

[mhr]

2. Unemployed 53 Months Bush - How Do You Expect Me To Own

A home when I cannot find a job?

Stuff your pipe dreams up your ass!

[The Zanti Regent]

7. Just wait for the rapture!

I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities when Jesus calls his rich white KKKristian faithful away!

As for me, I figure this will be the only way I could ever get my hands on a Rolls Royce, preferably from Paul Crouch!

[mhr]

26. If That Be True - Let The Rapture Begin - Besides The Sinners Are More Fun

eom

[hippiechick]

19. OMG, I was thinking the SAME THING !!!

Credit card debt is thru the ceiling, they've made it more difficult for people to declare bankruptcy, jobs are invisible or pay less than enough to survive, health care and education for our children is - IMO - a priority over owning v. renting ... and they want to talk about people OWNING A HOME ??


:wtf: are these people smoking ???



:hippie:

[SoCalDem]

41. The bankruptcy bill has not passed yet..but look out.. It will soon

This is most definitely a plan to put people on the edge..further into debt.. They can default, and then rich folks will be happy to buy those properties at bargain basement prices..

And by "forcing" localities to agree to "affordable housing". he's just asking for crackerbox houses 4 ft away from each other.. They will just depress property values of exiting homes that happen to be nearby..

Notice that the CASH portion of the relief goes to the BUILDERS..

[zippy890]

3. This agenda slashes rental subsidies to low income families

Read the first sentence in this article -- the battle Bush is waging
is AGAINST THE SECTION 8 RENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM which helps the lowest income people - families, elderly and disable - afford decent safe housing. His 'overhaul' will result in reduction of housing subsidies, it already has.

Homeownership program is limited in scope and is not designed to help families that live in areas where housing costs are high, --such as the northeast.

[Carolab]

4. Moreover it ruins the market for rental properties

Landlords have been bailing on inner city properties without section 8 incomes; many have been converting these to condos, and there is a glut on the market

[Sugarbleus]

6. I've been biting my nails since a year ago having learned of

this little SLASH in subsidies coming down the pike. My family is already feeling it in our area. We use Section 8...have done so for about 15 years (disabled adults here)...all of a sudden we are being treated like pariah...rents will be going up next month and more ugly stuff.

We DID look into the HUD ownership program, but the area I live in is E X P E N S I V E. We'd STILL have to come up with a down payment IF we found a place to buy. There are a few fairly nice provisions in the program (if one can believe them)...yet some hurdles to jump and not all people meet the criteria.

"Shanty Towns" anyone?? Hooverville=Bushville :(

[Eurobabe]

5. OK, kiddies, using the 'Clear Skies' analogy what does * REALLY

want to rape/pillage/destroy with this initiative?

Extra credit for creative thought....

[Strawman]

17. The "ownership" is reserved for the banks that forclose on our homes

Somewhere in a tiny paragraph in there is some new law that makes it easier to forclose or something is probably in there. Or something that allows banks to charge more in interest.

[colonel odis]

38. exactly. it's YOUR home they want to own.

then you can rent from them, a la henry potter.

[BiggJawn]

8. Deliver more grist to the debt mill.....

40,000 new people saddled with mortgage payments equal to a 1/3 or more of their take-home pay every year.

And what was that I was hearing earlier this week about Fannie Mae having her big bountiful breasts caught in the wringer?

"The American Dream" is a fucking nightmare. I know, I had a house forclosed on.

[Bob3]

9. considering *'s track record

This means the housing boom will be over very soon.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. He has the reverse Midas touch

so you're probably right

[K8-EEE]

12. He's King Midas With A Curse

He's King Midas In Reverse

Do you know that old Hollies song? It really reminds me of GWB!

[shesemsmom]

13. Thats dandy

what about those of us who have a home and have struggled to keep it while he's been in office. What an ASS. If that ain't puttin' the cart before the horse....GIVE US JOBS AND AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE SHRUB, you idiotic moron. We will take care of the rest!:grr: :grr:

[cliss]

27. You're so right.

Why do they have to get their damn fingers into peoples' lives and micromanage them? That's what the socialists do, not Republicans.

Unless, of course, they have something to gain from it. Namely, their last dollars.

[Tracer]

14. Any time SmirkBoy wants to "help" ...

... you can be sure that he means the opposite.

Notice the part about reducing "local and state regulations"!

[kskiska]

15. I've heard him say

he wants low-income people to be able to own the units they live in. How many do you know who would like to own that roach-infested apartment in the project they're currently living in?

[spotbird]

16. Redistribution of wealth is the common dominator

of all administration policy. Based on that This home ownership movement is either a window dressing or some sort of way to squeeze the last dime out of the lower and middle class.

As a homeowner I'm well aware of the fact that it is considerably more expensive to own then renting would be. This year we needed a new furnace, during the summer it was a compressor, the roof has a year or two left in it, don't talk to me about the yard and general maintainance. Appreciation isn't much where I live, certainly not enough to offset the other expenses, not to mention that appreciation not realized is worth the paper it's printed on.

Over all, I think we'd be way better off renting and buying euros with the money we'd save.

[hatrack]

18. Yes, and with endless public debt, bottomless deficits & rising interest %

. . . just how do you propose to do this, Commander Codpiece?

And besides, as another poster noted, about 125 houses per major metro area. BFD.

[LibDemAlways]

20. When interest rates rise and

the housing bubble bursts in my So. Cal community, many homeowners are going to be in big trouble stuck with mortgages larger than their home's value. During the past two years home prices have gone up beyond all reason and people have been paying in the 600K range for old crappy small fixers and well over a million for newer homes crammed together on the surrounding hillside. This community is foreclosure city waiting to happen. Homeowners will be left holding the bag.

[ckramer]

22. This f**king insane

Housing cost is a huge non-productive burden for all Americans.

This insanity will soon come to a sorry end.

[ckramer]

21. Bush is setting up

a housing collapsing disaster in a few years.

[shrike]

23. Seven notices of sheriff's sale posted today in my town hall

And this is not a big community. One of these foreclosures is in the town's one gated community -- very exclusive, very pricey. The rest are in upper-middle class, middle class areas (there really are no poor areas in town.) If the middle and near-rich can't afford homes, how can the poor?

[leesa]

24. Transferring ownership back to the banks, he means.

Who was it that said that a depression was when money and property returned to it's rightful owners (the elite)?

[alexisfree]

25. Homeownership yeah right ...Even in the Ghetto 2 bedroom 250K...

[rockedthevoteinMA]

28. 1 bedrooms around here start at 400k

I think I'll go buy me one - it will work out great at $8/hr - who needs to eat, when you can buy a house!?

[patcox2]

29. Hmmm; Suburbs = Bush votes, Cities = Dem votes, who wins here?

Home ownership, middle income development tax credits, all of the benefit of this is going to go to the suburbs, the mcmansion builders, the republican neighborhoods.

Meanwhile the big cities, where everyone lives in an apartment and votes democratic, get squat, and even the threat of "reform" of rental assistance programs, and everyone knows that in Bush-speak "reform" means "destruction."

Everyone knows Bush is a mean, vindictive, vengeful prick in person and in politics. Now we learn that his vengeance extends to policy; I am sure we will see many laws and programs that screw the states and the demographic groups that voted against him.

[RPM]

30. bizarre...

Many economists agree that there is a bubble in the real estate market, especially in residential R.E.

So * pushes buying homes as a policy.

Then when the bubble bursts, more people will be forced out of houses they just bought - brilliant....

[Magic_Cookie]

32. Exactly

People will end up with mortgages on properties that are worth 1/2 that amount. They won't even be able to sell them & pay off what they owe.

[Magic_Cookie]

33. Exactly

People will end up with mortgages on properties that are worth 1/2 that amount. They won't even be able to sell them & pay off what they owe.

[RPM]

35. yeah... then the good people who have money can own them too

btw - "magic cookie"?

I hope that doesnt mean what i think it means

[Magic_Cookie]

37. I'm creatively challenged

It probably doesn't mean what you think. See, I'm creatively challenged so when I had to come up with a user name I just picked something. This was written on an old piece of scrap paper I was using at the time so hence the name. Guess I have a few more days to become creative....

[tinrobot]

31. Tax credit -- for builders

Sounds like he's supporting his "base" again.

The tax credits need to go to the people buying the houses, not the people building them.

[Roland99]

34. His claim of high home ownership is actually because of a poor economy

and the incredibly low interest rates that have presided for the last few years.

It has not a goddamn thing to do with anything the Fuckwad in Chief has done.

[Langis]

36. I think that is wrong.

His claim is correct that we have record home ownership. But what he doesn't tell you is that EVERY YEAR we have had record home ownership for the last 45 years. So it isn't a big deal at all. It's like saying, "We have record high population", or "record high GDP" it doesn't mean shit. But morons eat it up.

[Roland99]

39. That's true, too. Add the two together and you have

one disingenuous bastard of a President.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

40. Orwell is probably getting a kick out of this ... looking down on

the good ol' U S of A and laughing his *ss off.