Obama showers dollars on California housing market
Pres. Barack Obama gets it. He understands that for our nation’s economy to recover, its housing markets have to rebound from their long slumps.
That’s why it was little surprise that Obama during a two-day swing through California that ended yesterday promised to distribute $145 million in new Housing and Urban Development funds aimed at helping those communities in the state hit hardest by the housing crisis.
According to a story by CNN, the funds will be used to buy and rehabilitate vacant and foreclosed homes, resell those homes with affordable mortgages and provide mortgage assistance and rehabilitation loans for low-income and middle-income families.
California certainly needs a boost. Housing prices in the state have fallen 20 percent during the past year.
And California isn’t alone. Most states have seen housing prices drop during the last year, of course. But some have been hit harder than others. Arizona, Nevada and Florida come to mind. These states, along with California, need all the financial assistance they can get to stimulate their moribund housing markets.
Like I’ve said before on this blog, the national economy isn’t going to rebound until the housing market again shows signs of life. Housing is that important to our country’s economic engine.
We can all look at Obama’s promises and wonder where the money for them will come from. That’s being sensible. But if that money is there, there are few things more important on which to spend it than on trying to rejuvenate our nation’s slumping housing market.
