Comments about ‘Utahns make dash for 'Home Runs': Supply of $6,000 federal grants for those buying new homes is almost exhausted’

It is quite amazing to see just how proficient the government has become at wasting our money. Why do people making $150,000/year need help from the government to purchase a home? Why are we helping people purchase homes which cost over half a million dollars?

This program is a showcase for stupidity. So it helps pay homebuilders for a few months and floods the market with more new homes when we're overbuilt in the first place. Real genius. Now what? We can't keep paying builders to make more homes we don't need.

This whole program is welfare for the Ivory Homes company. Our legislators are the biggest hypocrites in the solar system when they refuse to help the truly poor and then turn around and subsidize their developer buddies with big ol' giveaway programs like this.

Some people are never satisfied. The ultimate purpose of these grants was not help buyers of any income level - although thats what it did (bonus). The purpose was to decrease the inventory of EXISTING new homes - which is what this grant is doing. Decreasing the inventory of any type of home automatically helps the housing market. Complaining about an overbuilt marketplace and the system to fix that in the same sentence makes no sense. Put the blame on those that caused the problem - the banks - not those fixing it.

So Chuck, did you get one of these nice handouts too. Is that why you wrote this fluff piece on another worthless government program? You wrote:

"Fears the grants might end up being used to subsidize purchases of expensive upscale homes were unfounded."

Then you turn around and tell us 3.8% of grants were used to buy homes above $400,000. That means 53 people making less than $75,000/year were given a subsidy to buy a home they can't possible afford. Even worse, according to your numbers, the state doled out subsidies to about 14 people to buy homes priced at a half million dollars. These are low and middle income people buying these homes? Fears are unfounded? No wonder people don't buy newspapers anymore.

I hope the gvt approves more of these loans. It sure would help my wife and I and our new baby with the new townhome we have being constructed.

"Some may argue this will lead to an oversupply of new homes again," he said. "But lending institutions have ratcheted back their construction lending, and capital will not be nearly as accessible for builders of spec homes."

Right. Thank you for illustrating that this is not--and never was--about helping joe plumber subcontractor keep busy as he backfills 1600-1650 homes to replace the inventory that just sold.

This is, and always was, about helping get overpriced inventory off of builders' hands and books.

After this and the 8k tax credit are all gone (come Dec 1), I have a feeling that all this "activity" in the market might be over.

I am a potential buyer (have the loan, just looking for a property that is priced fairly). I promise you, if I do not find anything to buy that will close by December 1, eliminating me from receiving an 8k credit...I will be in no rush after that point. What's the hurry? If I miss that opportunity, I might as well just stay put with my roommates, piling up my savings every month. Given that the buyer pool will evaporate overnight on December 2nd, home prices in this valley will deflate back to non-hallucinogenic levels. Oddly enough, this will be viewed by most as "bad news." Hallucinogenic home prices have been everyone's friend (except for mine) the past five years.

Also, @ "This is journalism?"...

Don't forget that, in the last couple of years, a lot of people sold their $150k starter homes for twice what they paid, to people with false purchasing power (easy money/toxic loans). Keep in mind that not everyone buys 400,000 homes with only 3.5% down on <$75k/yr. Many have massive down payments (thanks, unwitting buyer!) that bring down the amount they're borrowing.

I can't see where the article said that it was "53" individuals making under 75k that borrowed for $400k+ homes. It refers to that many GRANTS. It's most likely that these grants were awarded to double income households at $150k/annually. If you use the practical and somewhat safe benchmark of 3.5 times your annual household income (comes out to 525k), that's not such a stretch.

So yes, this is journalism.

This is welfare for the housing industry, plain and simple. Instead of allowing the market to punish builders who put up too many homes, taxpayers subsidize their foolish decisions. This is just another bailout program. How is this different from bailing out banks and auto manufacturers?