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Peabody & Smith Realty Endorses Housing Stimulus Position Paper

Peabody & Smith Realty Endorses Housing Stimulus Position Paper

 Littleton, NH - Peabody & Smith Realty has endorsed a four-point proposal to jumpstart housing activity being promoted by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®, its national and global real estate network partner.
 
Authored by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®, broker Lennox Scott of John L. Scott Real Estate in Seattle, WA, and the company's mortgage partner, Erik Hand of Response Mortgage, the proposal focuses on four steps designed to generate housing purchases:
 
  1. To make the $7,500 first time buyer credit non-repayable, to allow it to be credited to the buyer at closing, and to extend this offer to all buyers.  The estimated cost of at least the first two elements is $18 Billion, a relatively small portion of dollars being discussed, but one which would serve as a strong buyer incentive.
  2. To Establish a federal down payment assistance program equal to 3.5% of the purchase price up to the FHA loan limits to augment efforts at the state and local levels.
  3. To purchase Fannie-Mae and Freddie Mac backed securities to lower borrowing costs for American homebuyers, in keeping with recent Treasury discussions that could lower interest rates to 4.5%.
  4. To increase the permanent high cost area loan limits to 125% of each market's median sales price for Agency and FHA loans in an effort to provide more balanced assistance to buyers in more expensive areas.

Further details of the proposal are provided in the full John L. Scott Housing Stimulus Plan Document, posted here, on the link below.

"Virtually every market in the country is being impacted by recent economic challenges," comments Andy Smith, Broker/Owner of Peabody & Smith Realty.  "We believe it is very important to move pro-actively to forestall further deterioration in the housing market and thereby boost the prospects of the overall economy.  While the steps the government has taken have begun to turn the tide, additional steps are needed to complete the task."

The plan being endorsed by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® and complements most of that being proposed by the National Association of Realtors®.

Peabody & Smith Realty provides residential real estate services int he Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire with offices in St. Johnsbury, VT and Littleton and Franconia, NH.  Its network, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, is the largest organization of locally branded residential real estate firms, with 700 companies and 170,000 associates producing over $370 billion in annual home sales.

 

Click Here to Read the Full John L. Scott Housing Stimulus Plan Document