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Home Builders Petition for Extension of $8000 credit

To help create jobs and set the stage for a strong recovery, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) last week called on Congress to extend and enhance the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit due to expire on December 1.

Specifically, NAHB is asking Congress to extend the home buyer tax credit program through November 30, 2010 and make it available to all buyers of principal residences.

“If Congress acts to extend the tax credit program, it would spur 383,000 additional home sales, including 80,000 housing starts, creating nearly 350,000 jobs over the coming year,” said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a home builder from Tulsa, Okla. “That’s good for the economy and good for America.”

In addition to extending the tax credit, home builders will be meeting with their lawmakers in their home districts during the August congressional recess and urging them to:

1. Correct a faulty appraisal process. The inappropriate use of distressed and foreclosed sales as comps in determining home values is hurting home values and killing home sales. The situation is so bad that a recent NAHB survey of more than 500 builders found that one out of every four new-home sales are lost because appraisals are coming in below the contract sales price. NAHB is urging Congress to work with housing and federal regulators to adopt and enforce clear, concise regulatory guidance that will allow appraisers to develop realistic valuations based on sales that are truly comparable.

2. Improve housing credit conditions. Since there can be no meaningful economic recovery until the flow of credit is restored to housing, NAHB is calling on Congress to urge regulators and the banking industry to end the stranglehold on acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) loans that has emerged as a major impediment to the housing recovery.

3. Co-sponsor Net Operating Loss (NOL) relief legislation in the House and Senate. NOL bills H.R. 2452 in the House and S. 823 in the Senate would prevent further layoffs in building and other industries hit hard by the recession.