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Homeownership incentives opposed by some consumer advocates
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The National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) offers a different point of view from homeownership advocates such as the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB): NMHC thinks most Americans would be better off renting.
In a recent press release, NMHC describes their positions in opposition to homeownership initiatives promoted by NAR and NAHB. NMHC says that the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is calling for a new homebuyer tax credit worth up to $22,000, and both NAHB and the National Association of Realtors (NAR) are lobbying for a federally financed interest rate buydown on mortgages.
NMHC says that these proposals will do nothing to stimulate the economy or stop house prices from falling further and that they are simply bailouts for the for-sale housing market, the sector that helped trigger the global economic crisis. According to NMHC, the only issue a homebuyer tax credit addresses is the oversupply of single-family houses, which is something best left to the marketplace -- not taxpayers -- to correct. NMHC suggests that if buyers need a $22,000 incentive to come back to the market, then home builders should absorb that cost through lower prices, rather than asking taxpayers to foot the bill. They say the government should not be using taxpayer dollars to sustain inflated housing prices.
The NMHC press release was picked up in a wide variety of media, including Dow Jones' MarketWatch, which commented that while it is in the best interest of NMHC's members for people to remain renters, the points made in the NMHC statement are "valid and certainly raise questions that lawmakers will have to consider as groups including the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders lobby for heftier incentives."
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