Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Presidents and Housing




For this week's issue, we'll look at candidates' platforms on Housing. Once again, all information and videos are taken directly from the candidates' websites, either in part or in whole, unless otherwise noted, with minimal alteration to clarify and streamline information.

Barack Obama

President Obama offers no opinion about Housing on his website, so here are some videos of President Obama on the subject.


Romney's Rebuttal
Summarized from Romney's Website

  • The only path to a healthy housing market is a healthy economy, but a housing recovery is central to a healthy economy. President Obama promised a much healthier economy by now, but the economy he promised is nowhere to be found.  Instead, our nation’s economy remains stuck with unacceptably high unemployment over 8% and economic growth too slow to ever reach a full recovery.  
  • Under President Obama, home prices have fallen, homeowners have received more than 8.5 million foreclosure notices, and 11 million Americans owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. President Obama’s only plan to address the housing crisis was the same plan he used to try to fix the economy: spend more taxpayer money on big-government programs.  To address the housing crisis, President Obama rolled out an alphabet soup of more than ten housing finance programs rather than offering a real solution.  Meanwhile, credit-worthy borrowers are struggling to get a loan as a result of the uncertainty caused by the President’s policies.
  • By continuing to insist on a government-centric approach to housing and to the economy more generally, President Obama has hamstrung the economic recovery and slowed the recovery of the housing market.  Right now taxpayers are on the hook for almost 90 percent of all new mortgages.  The two government-sponsored government housing corporations (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) fueled a predictable disaster and President Obama has done nothing to reform these entities.  
Mitt Romney
Summarized from Romney's Website

  • Understanding that a healthy economy is the key to a healthy housing market, Mitt Romney has an economic plan that will result in more jobs and more take home pay.  Independent economists estimate that the plan will create 12 million jobs by the end of his first term, an essential element to ending the housing crisis.
  • In towns across the nation, foreclosed homes sit empty, depressing the value of entire neighborhoods. The government owns about 200,000 of these homes, or almost half of all of the foreclosed homes in the country.  Mitt Romney will responsibly get the government out of the homeownership business and return these vacant homes to productive uses that will increase neighboring home values.
  • Foreclosures are a difficult, long, and expensive process for homeowners and lenders alike.  Mitt Romney will facilitate creative alternatives to foreclosure for those who cannot afford to pay their mortgage.  These alternatives will minimize the instability of communities hard hit by the housing crisis, preserve the credit of homeowners, and can help keep families in their homes.
  • Since the housing crisis, the government has produced more than 8,000 pages of new rules and regulations.  The problem is that they are poorly designed, and have made it harder for people with good credit to get loans.  Mitt Romney will put in place smarter regulations to restore a functioning marketplace that holds banks accountable and restart lending to creditworthy borrowers. 
  • Any serious plan for ending the housing crisis must address its root cause.  Two government-sponsored companies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were at the center of the housing crisis.  Mitt Romney will reform these government-sponsored companies to protect taxpayers from additional risk in the future by ensuring taxpayer dollars in the housing market are replaced with private dollars.
Obama's Rebuttal
As President Obama offers no opinion about Housing on his website, so here are some videos from President Obama and his campaign on Romney's stance on housing.

Conclusion
So in summary, the official stance from both parties are very similar, that the rules need to be reformed and that the housing situation will improve as the economy improves, although some of Romney's comments earlier in the campaign don't line up with this stance.

Turn in Friday for the Superhero opinions.
~James

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