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| Realtors pushhousing bill By: MARILYN GEEWAX 05/18/08 WASHINGTON — Realtors came to Capitol Hill this week to urge passage of housing legislation, and they hardly could have timed it better. After months of legislative stalemate, key senators spent Thursday
working on a compromise to advance a housing rescue package. As
hopes rose that a deal was near, Realtors declared that meetings
with senators and representatives were generating results. And that voice is shouting: Pass a housing package that will help financially struggling homeowners - and, indirectly, the Realtors who sell them homes. As Realtors arrived at the National Association of Realtors' weeklong annual meeting in Washington at the start of the week, prospects for compromise on a housing rescue bill appeared dim. Confronted with an economic slowdown in an election year, though, key Republicans have decided to resume negotiations. Republican support is vital because the Bush administration has been threatening a veto. The legislation could survive a veto only with broad bipartisan support. The House already has approved a bill crafted primarily by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass. His package would offer federal insurance on $300 billion in new mortgages to help strapped homeowners refinance with cheaper loans with fixed rates. Speaking to a hotel ballroom packed with Realtors on Thursday, Frank said Congress must help the hard-hit housing sector. "We are responding to a crisis" created by the failures of lending regulators, he said. "It was too little government - not too much - that has brought us here," he said. Frank said the free market is solving the problem, to an extent, by lowering prices enough to make housing more affordable. But price drops must be gradual, he said. "I should lose 15 pounds, but not in two days," he said. "People need time to adjust." Frank's speech was greeted with enthusiastic applause. "He's a wonderful ally," said Scott Wingfield, a Realtor from Port St. Lucie. John Mike, chairman of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, said that because of Frank's reputation as a liberal, "I was skeptical." But Frank's willingness to help the real estate industry has been impressive, he said: "He's a revelation." Supporters say Frank's American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Act would save hundreds of thousands of families from foreclosure. But the Bush administration says the bill would amount to a bailout for lenders and shift too much risk to taxpayers, a notion shared by some lawmakers. Realtors, though, are looking to kick-start housing sales. Home prices have dipped, the average commission remains at 5 percent and, as volumes have plunged, there are a million-plus Realtors battling for fewer than 6 million sales a year. Chuck Bonfiglio, president of the Florida Association of Realtors, said that statewide about 16 percent of Realtors had dropped out of the business within the past year. The National Association of Realtors said the median income of Realtors fell to $42,600 in 2007, down from $47,700 in 2006. And Realtors' median income after business expenses and taxes was a mere $27,000. After a steady diet of similarly bad news, it was good to see federal lawmakers trying to help, Bonfiglio said. Late Thursday afternoon, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., called a committee hearing to announced that "we're very close" to a compromise with Republicans. He predicted an agreement would be reached within days. "Inaction is not an option," Dodd said. *** |