Pennsylvania Real Estate News, Views and Rants : storm preparedness, Technology, veterans, VA

Walk in Closets are the cause of this Financial Situation---Seriously!

John Rainville — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:23:00 GMT

I have been pondering almost daily this great financial debacle that we have gotten ourselves into and how it happened. Now I understand Barry Obama likes to point the finger at the GOP or George Bush, but it started way before "W" became Number 43. It seems to me that this whole mess can be traced back to Post WWII America and the advent of the "walk in closet" to entice people to move to the new "burbs" outside of town. WHAT? you say! That's LUDICROUS! Now hear me out...

Most of us real estate professionals have been through our share of homes built all different years. So think about it...the 1800's and before we had armoires and PEGS for god sake to hang your clothes on---we only had a few shirts and pants IF we had more than one! Around the turn of the century we start to see what most bueyrs perceive to be miniscule closets in homes---now you coud hang maybe up to a dozen garments! The next jump is post WWII and the advent of the @#$ walk in closet----WHAMO! the world changed!

Now we started to hoard clothes, etc that we could hide in our WALK IN closets. Remember Lucy and Desi? She was ALWAYS hiding outfits! But now the "cow was outta the barn" and we havent' looked back----until now. At the same time we went from no garage to a one car to a two car to a three car---the third bay just to hold all the crap that WON'T fit in our WALK IN CLOSETS! But WAIT WE DIDN' T STOP THERE!

Hell, I've seen homes with 1500 Bottle "wine cellars"! We've got basements and attics and now we even RENT STORAGE UNITS for all the @$%# that won't fit in our @#$% WALK IN CLOSETS! What are we NUTS! We're renting space to store stuff we should have given away or sold on E-bay! In the rural areas where I live some of the folk who live in small houses or mobile homes have had to start storing their assets on the FRONT LAWN!

Hellooooo, why not sell that old AMC Pacer or cherry Gremlin that you are saving from the junk yard to someon who might actually be able to use it? Or at least scrap them gems and let us sned it to China to be melted down and sold back to us.Ohhh, I can hear some of you already laughing out loud, but hey what's YOUR closet look like? And I know I will hear from some Al Queda wannabe that this all goes back to a damn American Carpenter!

So Barry---back off George W. and the GOP and let America know where the blame outta be.

As always, IMHO.

NAR recommends Congress pass new housing stimulus legislation

John Rainville — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:24:00 GMT

NAR recommends Congress pass new housing stimulus legislation that includes the following priorities:

1. Remove the requirement in the current law that first-time home buyers repay the $7,500 tax credit, and expand the tax credit to apply not only to first-time buyers but also to all buyers of a primary residence.

2. Revise the FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 2008 stimulus loan limit increases to make them permanent. The Economic Stabilization Act, enacted in February, made loan limit increases temporary, and subsequent legislation reduced the loan limits and made them permanent. This has broad implication for home buyers in high cost areas.

3. Urge the government to use a portion of the allotted $700 billion that was provided to purchase mortgage-backed securities from banks to provide price stabilization for housing. The Treasury department should be required to use the newly enacted Troubled Assets Relief Program to push banks to:

• Extend credit down to Main Street, making credit more available to consumers and small businesses;
• Expedite the process for short sales;
• Expedite the resolution of banks’ real estate owned (REOs) properties.

4. Make permanent the prohibition against banks entering real estate brokerage and management, further protecting consumers and the economy.

This is GOOD! NAR recommends Congress pass new housing stimulus legislation

John Rainville — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:24:00 GMT

NAR recommends Congress pass new housing stimulus legislation that includes the following priorities:

4. Make permanent the prohibition against banks entering real estate brokerage and management, further protecting consumers and the economy.