The numbers may be up, but Obama's not with real estate brokers

As real estate prices soared from 2003 through 2007, many of my Realtor friends commented that the bubble had to burst, and it finally did. Was Barack Obama part of that artificial bubble? No. Sorry, but you cannot blame the mess we're in, or how long it's going to take, on our President. His administration is trying to do some creative things to get this mess over with, but it took about 10 to 12 years to recover from the S&L crisis, and anyone who thinks this "recovery" will happen sooner is uninformed.

"Obama does NOT support working for a living, earning a decent living, and being successful. The government does not support home ownership and regulate the mortgage business in the past."

Mr. Johnson's comment simply astounds me. He's essentially saying "Obama doesn't support working for a living - now give me a bigger handout!" Home ownership is grossly over-subsidized and this is in fact one of the major ways that the government (not Obama by his lonesome) encourages people to not work for a living. Why work when we can all get rich selling houses to each other? Just ignore that the recent gains due to the homebuyer welfare handout are being forcibly taken from someone else (taxpayers). Also ignore that the credit is ending very soon and these gains are just as transient.

Maybe we could do a poll of on Obama’s handling of the housing crisis?? How can you do a poll on something that doesn't exist? Obama has not handled the housing crisis... he's too busy spending money and trying to force-feed a health care plan that will doom this nation! As Ken Fisher so adequately said, people wanted change, well, they're getting it. The scary part is, those who elected this man should have seen the kind of changes he was going to make before they cast their ballot last November. God bless the USA, because Obama is out to destroy it!

I doubt that the President, or anyone else for that matter, anticipated runaway lending practices, vast speculation by both veteran developers and real estate rookies, and a largely unregulated financial services industry backing all this up with high-risk investment products.

One reason housing is up is because we are all pitching in to giving first timers 8k of our tax dollars. The auto industry picked up because we are all pitching in to give buyers 4.5k of our tax dollars. The appliance industry will pick up because we are all pitching in to give buyers 300 of our tax dollars. Do you see the common theme. No matter how "fantastic" the media paints this picture of our economy, only the realists see it for how it is.

Having a 40k limit on a credit card doesn't make someone rich, and borrowing from China does not make the US rich. All these debts will come crashing down on us and our kids, and 60 percent of america is too blind with ignorance to see that. I am almost 30, and I fear that I will have to leave the US due to the maelstrom of economic and political garbage we will be dealing with in the near future.

Obama's handling of the housing crisis would be fine if we had some money in reserves, but we don't. Letting prices settle and taking one on the chin is what needs to happen, but these politicians are smarter than us and know what we need. (sarcasm) In short, i think i stand with the majority when i assume 95% of the government is corrupt, and sacrificing our future economic success so the higher ups can fill their pockets is wrong and immoral. Maybe thats where the slumping popularity contest numbers came from. And for the record, i threw my vote away for Bob Barr, and proud of it.

First of all, let me note I personally have been highly critical of Obama myself--not because of the sudden fake deficit outrage, but chiefly because of his continuation of Bush's kid-gloves policy with the banks.

However, let's get real. Nobody mistakes NAR for a Mensa convention. Their opinions get widely quoted not because they actually know anything about anything--including housing--but because they pass many coins across the hands of Congress and the press. This is a so-called profession with no significant barriers to entry, and their illiterate comments reflect that. You'd get more useful information from a conversation with a rutabaga.

Since most of them lack the intellect to explain why they're whiny (our Rona is of course an exception), it's up to us to figure it out. The most obvious explanation is that the housing "rebound" is a crock. Foreclosures, short sales, and distressed sellers dominate the market. Move-up buyers are scarce. Most of the action comes from first-timers and specuvestors who are bottom feeding on lower-priced properties. Mid- and high-priced homes are still early in their fall. The seasonal "uptick"--such as it was--was driven by the entry of a historically small number of natural buyers and sellers into a market that, until spring, had almost no natural buyers and sellers.

So, while NAR can manipulate the statistics, it can't manipulate reality. Relitters just aren't getting the transactions they need to "earn" their commissions. And they know it.

Most of them fantasize a return to 2005, and feel the entire rest of the world has an obligation to bankrupt itself to coddle them. Well, we may indeed bankrupt ourselves, but 2005 isn't coming back.

Lately, it seems that the loudest voices are those who have nothing better to do than complain. Many of the complainers are gladly biting the hand that feeds them, a profound disconnect.
Me, I am busy selling houses. The market is picking up. The last administration did me no favors.
Truth be told, I would prefer President Obama be more forceful when dealing with the party of NO.

Could it be because all Obama has done is continued with the same failed policies of the Bush adminstration? This country has a two party system in name only. Attempts to blame the Democrats or the Republicans are misguided and just go to show the lack of intelligence by the voting public. If you look back through history, both parties are equally responsible for instituting failed policies. The only way to get real change in this country is to vote in honest politicians that actually have the citizen's interests in mind, not the interests of Wall Street and the Goldman Sachs of the world. Unfortunately that pool of candidates is very small.

Outside of New England (and maybe inside as well), real estate agents and brokers tend to be overwhelmingly Republican. The National Association of Realtors has historically been as large and as influential as the AARP and the NRA. And the NAR is often as Republican as the NRA.

So when it comes to Obama approval ratings by real estate agents... you might see occasional chameleon-like approval when Obama creates an $8500 home buying incentive, but you're also going to see a rapid downward spiral in the ratings when Obama does something that real estate agents do not like.

"Prices, meanwhile, also seem headed in the right direction."

So there's a "right direction" for housing prices and it's up? I suppose medical costs are also heading in the right direction. For a large majority of the public, the cost of housing in far too high. Why does the Globe consistently ignore them, and instead worry about the returns on investment of property owners? Housing is a necessity and the right price for it is a price that the average person can afford

Even when housing prices stabilize, real estate agents won't be happy. During the boom, the number of real estate agents soared as commissions went crazy. Falling housing prices directly translate to falling paydays for real estate agents. And because there are way more agents now, each agent gets fewer sales than she did in 2001, when real housing prices were the same. Throw in the drop in volume on the housing market, and real estate agents are hurting pretty bad.

Also, between Freakonomics and publicly searchable databases, a lot of the old RE agent luster is gone, which can't help.

This is laughable. The one party to the housing crisis that has gotten off without a whiff of blame are realtors and real estate "agency". What kind of "agency" is it when 3 of the 4 people at the table will benefit from a higher price? Incentives drive human behavior, and when an agent represents hundreds of buyers over the course of a career and receives a buyer's commission based on the price of the house, the incentive is to consciously or sub-consciously be a party to inflated prices.

As long as the real estate profession can point the finger at everyone else they will continue to do so. It's a broken process, and real estate agents will be the last to admit it.

Obama should be trying to KEEP people in their homes through some real modification/principle reduction plans. His HAMP program is a joke. Let's try to stabilize the housing market (and prices) by keeping people in their homes. I live and work in Las Vegas - this is the valley of "walk aways" because these people are getting no help from their current lender!

Poor real estate agents. You make WAY too much money on the sale of something that isn't even yours, even if it makes your customer take a loss on their own house, and then whine because your incomes are dropping? They were and still are overinflated in the first place. Do something that matters, actually produces something, or has tangible value. I think 6% is WAY too much, and I have proudly sold both of our previous houses by myself, which has saved us over 20,000. Sorry, but I'm not feeling any empathy for the parasitic practices of real-estate...

Well, I am both a Realtor, and a Custom Home Builder. And, I supported President Obama. We, as a Country, need a healthy housing industry. Unless we all plan to start living under bridges, our ever growing population needs practical options for buying a home. We don't need booms, and we certainly don't need busts like we've had the past three years.

With all this said, I will have to say that I have been very dissappointed with President Obama's lack of desire to get the housing market stabilized. There seems to be an effort to let the market struggle along the bottom as long as possible; I suppose to make homes more affordable for those who would otherwise not be able to afford a home.

The problem is that this crisis has gone too far for too long, and I don't just mean the crisis of the last three years. We had a housing crisis from 2004 through 2007 also, but few complained because we were all too busy enjoying the wealth accumulation from home appreciation.

Some things are simply too important to leave solely to the total whim of investors. As a Country, we need to demand a healthy housing market; where everyone involved; builders, real estate agents, suppliers, moving companies, etc. can all make a decent wage, but not an overnight fortune.

Here's hoping that President Obama sees the importance of a healthy housing market and does whatever is necessary to get confidence back into the market.

Steve wouldn't you agree, that when it comes down to it, low housing prices, like low medical costs, low food costs, low fuel costs are a good thing? Housing is an expense like anything else. The vast majority of people would like to minimize their expenses as much as possible, wouldn't you? The problem we have now is a direct result of having an economy overly reliant upon housing, which as time as proven has been an extremely poor allocation of resources. Building mcmansions unlike improvements in technology, medicine, etc. does not improve the quality of life for anyone. Low housing prices, like low medical costs are a good thing...

I think this is a case of inverse percentages. If Obama's "approval" rating is slipping amongst NAR members, he must be doing something right!

The bottom line is, the market will not be 'healthy' again until the prices settle and come to their true value. Unfortunately, this means there are going to be a lot of people who lose a lot of money in the process. Those losses cloud the perception of the market and make it appear 'unhealthy'.

The fact is, these losses are part of the healing process. We can't have it both ways - no losses AND lower prices (which stimulate more buying/selling).

I am a Realtor, a broker actually. After reading all of these posts I couldn't help but think "weird, do I hear Democrats whining?" That's not like them. Obama promised you the world and now he is not living up to everything. I didn't see that coming!

He has been working on a few things though:

Health Care:
My favorite places are the US Post Office and the DMV. Let's make doctor's visits just a miserable! Furthermore, can I please pay more for it with my TAX MONEY!!!

Cash For Clunkers:
100's of 1000's of people just bought cars and got an extra $4500 for it, i bet the auto industry is looking better. If everyone who would have bought a car in the next 2 years just jumped and bought one immediately and got a chunk of TAX MONEY, who is going to be buying cars over the next couple years?

Economic Stimulus:
Building bridges and other road is great for employment of more road workers. What happens when we fix all the bridges? We then have a bunch of unemployed road workers.

Barakinhood: Taking from the rich and giving to the poor!
I'm sure business owners along with other wealthy individuals who's taxes are increased are just going to cut back in their own lives. Their kid's will have less new clothes, less toys to play with, and less vacations time. Reality is, if they don't make money neither will you.

Let's give all of everyone money to the government. They will divide it up evenly among everyone (US Citizen or not). Wouldn't life be awesome, none of us would have to work!!!!

Our country was founded on hard work and a drive to succeed which has lead to great FREEDOM. If I can get paid the same and work less, am I going to? If I can work less and have someone else pay for my health insurance, am i going to? Probably... that's the spirit!