American Dream

As a career Realtor®, I have been helping Denver area consumers buy and sell homes for 30 years.  From the very beginning, I understood that my career choice was based in large part on the American Dream of home ownership.  The Dream is rooted deeply in the American social fabric, and while many capable adults in the United States don’t want to own their residence, most do.  In 2006, residential ownership peaked at over 70%, and today, even with the large number of foreclosures, the number of adults in the United States owning their homes is still 68%+.  The difficulty’s facing the financial industry today will pass.  Most American still want to own their home, and those that are financially capable will continue to do so.  Our definition of that capability has changed in the past 2 years, just as it changed in the early part of the the decade, but most people that want to buy a home will be able to do so again in the near future. 

As of this writing, our political leaders are meeting to craft a plan to bailout the financial industry by absorbing the “bad” home loans.  In the next few days, we will begin to understand just how that plan will work.  The only valid criticism of such a plan is “what took them so long?”.  The questions of just why this crises happened, who was at fault, and where to regulate in the future take a backseat to what to do and when to do it.  When is now, not next week, but right now, while some investor confidence has been restored in corporate value.  And the question of what is being written as I write. Congress will no doubt require regulatory authority to prevent the crises from happening again, but that is the simply the bureaucracy at work and the price that must be paid when the free market does not pay attention to its own well being. Do we need to know the answers to who and what? Yes, because most Americans will want that information to effect closure.  The system will adjust to new regulations, as it always has, and we will move on to other challenges.

The media of course will not tell the story exactly right, so most Americans will not fully understand the “bailout”.  Few people will, even those that craft the plan.  And the short and long term effect is not entirely predictable.  This much is probably true: (1) stopping the bleeding is necessary for the patient, in this case the American economy, to recover, and (2) the Federal budget will actually profit from this “bailout” in the longterm.  Remember, most Americans want to own their home, and will begin to buy as soon as the fear is past and credit is available.  The fact is, there is considerable money available through the FHA to buy homes right now, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still in business with large Federal infusions of mortgage money. If the market is free to function, then values will begin to rise.

It will take some years for the home market to fully recover the recent loss of value, but it will, in fact, recover.  Americans will continue to buy and sell homes, and Realtors® will be there to help them do it.  Will things be the same? NO! They never are the same, but we will move forward and feel good about ourselves as a country soon enough.

Written by Larry D. McGee, Denver Realtor - Visit Website Sphere: Related Content