Housing money headed to Mass.
Massachusetts Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy announced today that the Bay State's Department of Housing and Community Development will get nearly $51 million in stimulus cash to help revive the moribund housing market.
Nationally, housing starts have fallen almost 80 percent since the beginning of 2006, and Massachusetts is no exception. The drop in housing construction has led to severe job losses in building and related jobs, more than 1 million nationwide.
“We’ve got more than 750 Massachusetts families and 1,000 children hanging on by their fingernails living in motels at a cost to state taxpayers of nearly $2 million each month. This affordable housing investment will help these families and thousands more who are out of work or struggling with reduced incomes from fewer hours at work by creating good jobs and delivering affordable housing now. It will help keep these working families off the streets and out of shelters for good,” Kerry said in a statement.
“These funds are vital to Massachusetts families who are out of work and reeling from the soaring cost of housing,” added Kennedy. “I commend the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development for its extraordinary commitment to our citizens struggling with housing costs, and I commend President Obama for emphasizing the need to make these important investments that protect families and also create jobs in our Commonwealth.”
Comment
Permalink
Email
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
About Political Intelligence
News from the Washington Bureau
“These funds are vital to Massachusetts families who are out of work and reeling from the soaring cost of housing,” added Kennedy
Kennedy needs to keep up a little better with current affairs. Housing prices have been declining for quite a while now.
Prices have not fallen enough to keep up with the decline in real wages (since the early 1980s) and increased unemployment. Remember RS we were in a real estate bubble of unprecedented size that bore absolutely no relationship to economic reality unless you were a hedge fund manager or a sports star. It's going to take a long time for sellers to face the new reality.
Before 2000 - you could get a house under $100000 - with a thirty year mortgage - you had low payments under 1/3 of your income. All you had to do was have a half decent job and you were golden. Then houses were turned into piggy banks. A house that would have run you $100,000 will now be $500000 in the same neighborhood. Jobs still pay the same or in a lot of cases pay less. So how did people afford houses. They lied on applications - thinking things would get better. They did not - things got worse. Thus the whole housing meltdown. Let this work through the system - stop trying to stop it. Have people rent again - rents are down as there is a glut of property on the market. Instead of impeding a correction & trying to stop the meltdown, let it work through. Then things can get back to normal.
Joe,
I understand you want to bring in your favorite talking point, but RS is right.
The real estate has been dropping, and thus Kennedy's statement that the cost of housing is soaring is wrong.
Your post is a non-sequitur - how about not pretending you're actually talking to RS, and leaving is stand by itself?
"Affordable" housing for those who lack employable skills, English, and citizenship is just more of the same from those Dems who would rather make lifelong voters out of people than to really invest in having people get a leg up in life. More gov't waste.