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Week of January 21, 2008
NAHB’s Monday Morning Breif
Joining forces to push for much-needed GSE oversight reform,
NAHB and the Financial Services Roundtable's Housing Policy Council took decisive action on Jan. 16 aimed at breaking a congressional deadlock on one issue that has so far kept the legislation from moving forward. [more]
Builder confidence hasn't changed much [more]
Builders reduced production of new homes in December [more]
The Census Bureau will keep providing essential remodeling data [more]
Free online resources are available to help NAHB members [more]
See The New American Home 2008 at the upcoming IBS [more]
NAHB mourns the passing of Bob Moomey, [more]
NAHB offices will be closed on Martin Luther King Day, [more]
Homeowners' tax amendment makes it through state House
By: Mark Scolforo, Associated Press
A constitutional amendment to permit elimination of homeowners' property taxes advanced out of the state House of Representatives yesterday, but it faces a long road ahead.
The measure would expand a provision in the state constitution that allows a 50 percent cut in property taxes for people's primary homes. The amendment would let the legislature eliminate such taxes, while keeping taxes in place for businesses and other commercial properties.
The bill was one of two items to emerge from the House as members searched this week for ways to cut school taxes. The other, which also passed unanimously yesterday, would give tax breaks to working poor while cutting the state's personal income tax by about a billion dollars a year.
The constitutional amendment would need to pass the Senate this year and then get another round of approval by the legislature in the 2009-10 session before going to state voters for a referendum.
Despite the bill's unanimous passage, some Republicans criticized it for not requiring - rather than simply allowing - larger property tax cuts or for not eliminating property taxes of all kinds.
Slow growth seen
By: Crissa Shoemaker Debree; The Intelligencer
New housing starts are at their lowest level in 17 years. The unemployment rate is up. And local manufacturers are reporting the slowest business in several years.
All of this begs the question: Are we headed for a recession?
Local economists can only say “maybe.”
“I have no idea,” said William Dunkelberg, an economics professor at Temple’s Fox School of Business. “Based on the work that I do, which is study small businesses (which account for half of the nation’s economy and 60 to 80 percent of job growth), it means no recession.”
Fitzpatrick to run for state House
By: Chris English, Bucks County Courier Times
Saying he is ready for a change in how he serves the public, former congressman and Bucks County commissioner Michael Fitzpatrick has announced he will run this year for the state representative seat held by Democrat Chris King, D-142.
The 44-year-old Republican said the job, if he gets it, will give him the chance to hold public office again but stay a little closer to his wife, Kathy, and six children, ranging in age from 7 to 18. Since being defeated by Patrick Murphy, D-8, in the 2006 Congressional election, Fitzpatrick has worked as an attorney at the Middletown law firm of Begley, Carlin and Mandio.
If elected, Fitzpatrick said he would continue his law practice but at a significantly reduced workload.
On the House: Fear itself now rules the market
By: Al Heavens, Inquirer Columnist
There are a lot of reasons the real estate market is in the state it's in, but the one that seems to be overwhelming all others is fear.
Fear that houses might be worth less a year from now than they cost today is keeping prospective buyers from committing to purchases, says Commerce Bancorp chief economist Joel Naroff.
Fear of not being able to sell their current houses is preventing trade-up buyers from taking the "leap of faith," as Naroff puts it, and signing agreements of sale on new houses. Three or four years ago, at the height of the boom market, typical trade-up buyers would think nothing of signing sales agreements while their current homes were unsold.
The fear, Naroff and other economists maintain, is fed by the belief that a house is primarily an investment instead of a place to live.
Head Strong: In Bucks County, two patriot politicians
By: Michael Smerconish
I don't envy the voters of Bucks County, Northeast Philadelphia, and a small part of eastern Montgomery County.
Residents who compose the Eighth Congressional District are going to cast ballots in 2008 that will likely require a particularly grueling political calculus: weighing the impact of a young Marine's tragic passing in service to our country. No wonder this race - less than one week old - is already shaping up to be one of the most competitive, high-profile contests in the nation.
When Republican Thomas Manion, who is expected to win his party's nomination, announced his candidacy against Democratic incumbent Patrick Murphy last week, he was afforded one-third of a page treatment in USA Today. Unfortunately, that coverage resulted not from Manion's standing as a retired Marine colonel or pharmaceutical executive, but because he is the father of Marine First Lt. Travis Manion. Travis, a graduate of La Salle College High School and the U.S. Naval Academy, was killed in Fallujah on April 29 of last year.
Murphy is a freshman member of the House and the only member of Congress to have served in Iraq, meaning he will defend his seat by running against the father of a fallen brother-in-arms. Given the history of the district, this election would already have been targeted by both parties even without this emotional pull.
Stephens to go for state House seat
By: Annie Tasker, The Intelligencer
Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Todd Stephens announced he is running for the 151st District state representative seat now held by Democrat Rick Taylor, who is running for re-election.
Stephens, a 36-year-old Republican from Horsham, announced his intention to run Tuesday after telling supporters at a gathering last week.
“I help people now, but I help them one person at a time,” Stephens said Tuesday. In Harrisburg, I can do more,.
The Hatboro-Horsham High School graduate is head of the sex crimes unit at the Montgomery County District Attorney's office. He is the prosecutor in several area cases including that of Enrique Perez, the Upper Moreland man accused of sexually assaulting an elderly Hatboro woman in September, and Warminster driving school teacher Amit Gandhi, who is accused of groping a teenaged student during a driving lesson in October. He's also headed up the district attorney's office firearms unit and served on Horsham's planning commission.
Pennsylvania needs stiffer penalties for violent criminals and a ban on allowing convicted sexual predators to live near day care centers, and those issues haven't been properly addressed in Harrisburg, Stephens said.
Pa. Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach to seek 4th term
Rep. Jim Gerlach says he is seeking a fourth term in the U.S. House.
The Republican congressman said in a conference call Tuesday he endorses President Bush's economic stimulus proposal.
Gerlach says he favors getting money back in the hands of taxpayers, regardless of income level.
Three Democrats are seeking the nomination in the district that spreads across Montgomery, Chester, Berks and Lehigh Counties.
The Democratic contenders are Haverford developer Mike Liebowitz, retired businessman Robert Roggio, of Charlestown, and Lima freight service executive Richard Phillips Jr. The Chester County Democratic Committee is expected to endorse one of the three at its nominating convention Saturday. Montgomery County Democrats will endorse a candidate next month.
Experts say rate cut will help homebuyers
By: John Anastasi, Bucks County Courier Times
The Federal Reserve's surprise rate cut Tuesday morning will spur the housing market and help the broader economy, though some fixed-income senior citizens' investments could take it on the chin.
“It really is a double-edged sword,” said Rosemary Caligiuri, president of Harvest Group Financial Services Corp. of Middletown.
“It's great for the young person, [but not for] retirees on fixed incomes.”
Before the market opened Tuesday, the Fed cut a key interest rate by 75 basis points when it lowered the federal funds rate — the interest banks charge one another for overnight loans — from 4.25 percent to 3.5 percent. It also reduced the discount rate, which banks charge each other, from 4.75 percent to 4 percent.
In '07, home sales in U.S. fell 12.8%
By: Alan J. Heavens, Inquirer Real Estate Writer
Sales of existing homes nationally fell 12.8 percent in 2007 from 2006, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday. December sales were off 2.2 percent from November, but down 22 percent from December 2006 - the largest annual decline in a quarter century.
Preliminary figures for 2007 showed the median sale price of a single-family home fell 1.4 percent, to $218,900 from $221,900 in 2006, the Realtors' group said.
Once again, however, the Philadelphia region appeared to have fared slightly better than the nation as a whole. Sales here declined 11.1 percent in 2007 from 2006, while prices rose 1.8 percent, to $229,000 from $224,900, according to Prudential Fox & Roach's HomExpert Market Report, which analyzes information provided by the Trend Multiple Listing Service.
Some counties did better than others. Median prices in Delaware County climbed 8.1 percent, for example, while Bucks County prices dropped 0.3 percent, the HomExpert data show.
Median price is the middle number, with half the homes selling for more and half selling for less. The median can rise, for example, if more high-priced homes sell in one period than did in the previous period.
December's national drop in sales "was disappointing, since sales in October and November were almost unchanged, and since long-term mortgage rates fell about 17 basis points in both November and December," said housing economist Patrick Newport, of Global Insight Inc., of Lexington, Mass.
