As seen on ABC 15 News…
What do the Oklahoma Sooners and a 4.5% interest rate have in common?
They may both be part of a land grab.
Ok, not really, but the national (and local) media sure did jump on the story that broke in the WSJ about the possible plan for the government to do everything in its power to lower the target interest rate for people buying a new home to 4.5%.
The “4.5% plan” is one that the National Association of Realtors has been lobbying hard for and thinks is the key to helping the housing market recover.
According to the most recent article in the New York Times about the “4.5% plan”:
“We believe that the only way to really address the housing situation is to increase sales,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the association. “Home prices will not stabilize until we address the inventory problem, and the only way to bring down the inventory of houses on the market is to bring in a new set of buyers. We think this would do the trick.”
Mr. Yun estimated that a one-year program to provide home buyers with an interest rate of 4.5 percent would cost the government about $50 billion. It would result, he predicted, in about 500,000 home sales — an increase of slightly more than 10 percent over today’s depressed sales rate. If the program were extended to people who simply wanted to refinance, Mr. Yun warned, the government’s cost could easily be 10 times higher.
Will the 4.5% plan pass? Will the Oklahoma-Sooner land-grab days come back to the Valley?
I hope so.