Housing Giants - January 1, 2009 - (Page 13) FEATURE “I’m encouraged that people are now, at last, talking about fixing the housing market rather than just banks. Housing is where this has to begin.” — Nicolas P. Retsinas worst thing that can happen for the housing market.” sell. But when the housing finance system re-introduces very high down payments, that creates another barrier to those buyers. The good news is that policy makers now seem to agree that the next stimulus package must have provisions that directly affect the housing market.” But Retsinas warns against any stimulus that would immediately ramp up housing construction. “That’s why first-time buyers should be the target, because they will buy existing homes and help us get that inventory down.” government now controls the GSEs. It can now intervene more directly to use them to achieve public policy objectives. And I’m encouraged that people are now, at last, talking about fixing the housing market rather than just banks. Housing is where this has to begin.” Retsinas believes Congress and the nation will engage in a healthy debate throughout 2009 over what kind of housing finance system the country should have. “What will be the role of government?” he asks. “What form will Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae take? Will they even exist? What’s the role of FHA?” The country must learn from what happened, Retsinas says. “It was only four years ago that FHA was only about 3 percent of the mortgage market. This past year, it was 17 percent, and 25 percent of new home sales — and even higher in the first-time buyer segment.” Marching on to Washington? The prospects for housing improved again recently when Nicolas Retsinas was tapped by PresidentElect Obama to be part of his transition team. Retsinas is no stranger to Washington, D.C. During the 1990s, Retsinas served in the Clinton Administration as assistant secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing And Urban Development and as Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision. He also served on the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Wherever he is, Nic Retsinas knows what housing needs to break out of the box that constrains it today, and he won’t be shy about sharing those ideas. HG Demand Pressure Mounts Retsinas believes the pressure of pent-up demand is building, but it is being held in check by a broken housing finance system. “In order to have housing recovery anywhere, we have to get the housing finance system functioning again. We’ll do it, but it’s going to take a while. If people still have doubts that the house they buy today will hold its value tomorrow, it’s hard to sell.” He argues that the strongest pent-up demand is in the entrylevel market. “It’s right to focus the stimulus program on first-time buyers,” he says. “Whether we talk about immigrants or echo boomers, the strength of the demographics is at the low end of the pricing spectrum. And of course, entrylevel buyers don’t have houses to Can Housing Lead Recovery? “It would be very difficult for home building to lead recovery,” Retsinas says, “because the housing finance system is broken, and that’s the lifeblood of the housing market. But we do have some tools available to us. For instance, the 13 1.1.09 HOUSING GIANTS www.HousingGiants.com http://www.hud.gov/ http://www.hud.gov/ http://www.fdic.gov/ http://www.fdic.gov/ http://www.HousingGiants.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 Contents Viewpoint News & Moves Tech People to Know Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 (Page Cover1) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Contents (Page 2) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Viewpoint (Page 3) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Viewpoint (Page 4) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - News & Moves (Page 5) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - News & Moves (Page 6) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Tech (Page 7) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Tech (Page 8) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - Tech (Page 9) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 10) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 11) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 12) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 13) Housing Giants - January 5, 2009 - People to Know (Page 14)
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.