Next up for a bailout: Home Builders. Not mortgage help, aid to build more homes.They want $250B

[Robbien]

Home builders trying to get government rescue money. The builders' lobby is pushing for a $250B stimulus package it calls "Fix Housing First," arguing financial markets won't recover until housing markets stabilize. The package includes tax credits for home purchases and a federal subsidy on mortgage rates. Critics say the proposal is too expensive and overemphasizes home purchases vs. loan modifications, and warn that any government intervention will have to find a way to stimulate housing demand without artificially propping up property values.

http://seekingalpha.com/news/wall_street_breakfast

We have a glut of empty homes and the builders want a bailout of $250B to add more over-priced badly constructed homes to the heap.

[ixion]

1. yes, by all means... give more of our money to yet another group that helped cause the problem

:sarcasm:

The only people apparently NOT entitled to our money are We, the People. :grr:

[Robbien]

5. Yep. And note this is not a loan request. They want the money given to them

Currently the home builder industry subsidizes loan downpayment programs (as part of their scheme to make mortgage payments affordable) which just inflates the price of homes. Now they want the government to take over the program.

The crooks are getting bolder and bolder.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "We are totally innocent. Let us tell you who is (smirk) to blame." - Republicon Homelanders

[AndyA]

3. Doesn't it seem rather obvious that our government is not really fixing the PROBLEM here?

They aren't addressing the fact that the mortgage issue was brought on by people not making their mortgage payments. Whether it be to job loss, payment escalation due to adjustable rates, choosing between high gas prices to go to work and making the house payment, etc.

The consumer - the average American - is getting NOTHING from this deal. It seems to me the government needs to go directly to the SOURCE of the problem. Help people with their mortgage payments. Help them keep their homes. Lower the payments. And then guess what? They will have more money to spend, which will help bring up the economy.

So far, all they've done is stick duct tape over the hole in the dam. And it isn't holding very well.

I don't know why our leaders can't figure this out, but it certainly seems to evade them.

What they are doing is REWARDING BAD BEHAVIOR. They are giving money to the very same parties that created the monster. :eyes:

[Robbien]

10. The big hole in their recovery plan is to rebuild the economy

back to exact how it was before the collapse. Not change it, just goose it to get it started back on the same old bubblelicious path.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Sure, why not? The line forms on the right.

And Bush will be at the door, carefully checking each each candidate for past GOP contributions.

[KharmaTrain]

6. The Circle Jerk...Cause & Effect & Cause...

Lets try to follow this one...since the banks no longer are doling out money to contractors and builders like it was water, it's now up to the taxpayers to provide the money?

Now whose gonna afford those new houses? Or are we headed into a "make work" society where jobs are supported because the industry is either "too big" or too connected for it not to fail.

The bottom line is people aren't spending since the credit market has been destroyed by bad loans and decades of "supply side" excess. Until the debt and credit mess is cleared, money will get tighter and tighter...and it's gonna ripple in virtually every industry. The more we "bail-out" the longer it will take for a true recovery to begin.

[Tutonic]

7. Trickle down economics?

[LynneSin]

8. I'd give them some of the money under one condition

instead of building more McMansions (don't we have enough out there already), why not go into our cities and fix up these houses that are broken down and abandoned. We could turn those houses around to low income families with proven job records looking for a place for their family and we can increase the values of houses around it since you won't be stuck with an abandoned house as your neighbor.

[MannyGoldstein]

9. Increased Supply Will Simply Drive DOWN Housing Prices

Simply silly.

[corpseratemedia]

11. They'll just keep funding the collapse with your wages n/m