Posted on 02/27/2009 6:06:50 PM PST by free-n-TX
February 26, 2009 - President Obama released his budget proposal this morning. A small section of the sweeping budget plan has the potential to become a major impediment to a recovery in real estate markets across the nation. NAR is 100% opposed to the provision that modifies the Mortgage Interest Deduction and is prepared to use its formidable array of resources against its enactment.
As currently drafted, the plan changes the Mortgage Interest Deduction by reducing the amount of mortgage deductibility on families earning over $250,000. This proposed change in the Mortgage Interest Deduction will result in further erosion of home prices and home values. If this proposal is enacted it will set of a new round of price depreciation, will cause greater distress on the balance sheets of banks as the collateral value of mortgage backed securities declines. A second credit crisis could emerge before the first one is resolved.
As you read this NAR is launching a multiphase plan of action to eliminate this provision from the budget plan. In the next 24 hours, NAR will be expressing our concerns directly to President Obama, to all members of the United States House of Representatives and the Senate, placing advertisements in the publications read by Washington, DC decision makers. Additionally, NAR will be forming a coalition with other groups affected by this proposal.
Dear Fellow REALTOR®,
You may have seen news reports about President Obama’s budget proposal that was released today at 11:30 AM Eastern Time. A small section of the sweeping budget plan has the potential to become a major impediment to a recovery in real estate markets across the nation. NAR is 100% opposed to the provision that modifies the Mortgage Interest Deduction and is prepared to use its formidable array of resources against its enactment.
As currently drafted, the plan changes the Mortgage Interest Deduction by reducing the amount of mortgage deductibility on families earning over $250,000. This proposed change in the Mortgage Interest Deduction will result in further erosion of home prices and home values. If this proposal is enacted it will lead to a new round of price depreciation, will cause greater distress on the balance sheets of banks as the collateral value of mortgage backed securities declines. A second credit crisis could emerge before the first one is resolved.
As you read this NAR is launching a multiphase plan of action to eliminate this provision from the budget plan. In the next 24 hours, NAR will be expressing our concerns directly to President Obama, to all members of the United States House of Representatives and the Senate, placing advertisements in the publications read by Washington, DC decision makers. Additionally, NAR will be forming a coalition with other groups affected by this proposal.
This communication is the first part of our response, we will continue to update you as the situation and events warrant.
Sincerely,
Charles McMillan, CIPS, GRI 2009 NAR President
Here is the link to the NAR website...
It is ONLY tax code....what is the big deal?
Being a Realtor myself and a former mortgage broker I dont see where the problem is....cumbayahhhhhh !!!!!!
Non-real-estate groups should remember the maxim: “First they came after my neighbor, but I did nothing...”
LEAVEEEEEEE OBAMAAAAAAA ALONE!!!!!!!!!
Just scrap the mortgage deduction entirely, or introduce an equal RENTER’s deduction. Eliminate the stupid bias in favor of buying. If the latter had been in place, the housing crisis would never have happened. Far too many stupid people were convinced (usually by brokers) to buy instead of rent because of this idiotic deduction.
Also note that if you make enough gross income, your itemized deductions are reduced (see bottom of Schedule A). So this will reduce the amount of mortgage interest you can effectively declare and then you get all your itemized deductions reduced at the end of the Schedule A - your mortgage interest is reduced twice!
The law should be changed so all interest is deductible — or none. The mortgage problems came from people taking second mortgages because it was the only tax deductible form of interest. There are people who bought cars with their home equity lines because it was “a great tax break.”
And the Republicans were so scared to get rid of it for a flat tax. Øbama is bold and fiscally ignorant
You need to ask why the brokers were pushing mortgages to the unqualified.
They were being strong-armed by the Feds and race-baiters like Eliot Spitzer. See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994241/posts?page=9#9 for some valuable background.
This man, born in Kenya, is intent on totally destroying this nation.
“Well, it seems that if any market is down Obama and his gang are going to stomp it the rest of the way.”
That’s exactly the plan. It was with Clinton as well, but he didn’t have the “crisis economy” to act as brazenly as Obama can because of the “crisis economy” Clinton helped fabricate.
A Nation with a broken economy is a broken Nation susceptible to crisis management by about anyone with a line of BS.
All I see and hear anymore is BS. Up is down, and down is up.
The way I understand this provision is the reduction on the mortgage interest is for those homeowners making over $250,000. Those people are not likely to be a foreclosure risk like the buy-vs-rent clients who were “convinced” to buy.
This is just another way to punish the folks who are doing well and pay higher taxes anyway.
These socialist scum plan to raise taxes astronomically, first on “the rich” and then on everybody else (First they came for the Rich, but I was not Rich so I did not speak out...).
I’m more than ever convinced that there will be a Call To Arms in my lifetime.
I’ll leave him alone if he’ll leave me alone, but that’s highly unlikely!
Obama wants to reduce the mortgage and eliminate the charitable deduction. The man is vermin.
How about eliminate the stupid bias in favor of socialism?
Socialism, not a “bias in favor of buying” caused the mortgage problem.
Correction: “Him” not him
I advocate making either home rental payments deductible (not 100%, but along a similar percentage glidepath to what mortgagees pay over time), eliminate the mortgage deduction entirely. Anything else is a perverse distortion of the markets.
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