Realtors champion home ownership

Last week thousands of Realtors from across the country convened in Washington, D.C., for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) mid-year sessions; I was honored to be among them. During this annual event our senators and representatives set aside some time out of their busy schedules to meet with us and listen to our concerns about private property rights.

The North Idaho contingency met with Senator Crapo, Representative Labrador and Senator Risch. We had three key messages: Home mortgage interest deductions must be kept; our country needs a successor to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will preserve the secondary mortgage loan market, and to vote against any proposed legislation requiring a minimum of 20 percent down for all mortgage loans. If this legislation were allowed to take effect, it would put home ownership out of reach for middle-income Americans. It would take the average family 14 years to save up the down payment to buy a home and for all intents and purposes nearly eliminate first-timers, currently 35-50 percent of buyers. Our recovering yet still unstable housing market simply doesn't need any more hurdles.

During the meetings in D.C. Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist said "A huge volume of cash sales, supported by the recovery in the stock market, show that smart money is chasing real estate. This implies that there could be a sizeable pent-up demand if mortgages become more readily accessible for qualified buyers. The problem isn't with interest rates, but with the continuation of unnecessarily tight credit standards that are keeping many creditworthy buyers from getting loans despite extraordinarily low default rates over the past two years." Yun said that if credit requirements returned to normal, safe standards, home sales would be 15 to 20 percent higher. Lawrence Yun will present his outlook locally at the Real Estate Forum in February at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

According to experts at a residential real estate forum, sales are expected to stay on an uptrend through 2012. Yun said "the remainder of this year looks better. We expect 5.3 million existing-home sales this year, up from 4.9 million in 2010, with additional gains in 2012 to about 5.6 million - that's a sustainable level given the size of our population."

Yun expects the median existing-home price across the U.S. to remain near $170,000 over the next two years, which would mark four consecutive years of essentially no meaningful price change.

Frank Nothaft, Chief Economist at Freddie Mac, holds similar views on the outlook. "Economic activity will accelerate this year - there will be no double dip in the economy," he said. Nothaft expects home sales to rise 5 percent for the remainder of this year. "Nationally, prices are likely to bottom sometime this year," he said. "Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages are expected to trend up to around 5.25 percent by the end of the year."

Overall from the NAR's point of view, the housing market outlook is positive. NAR First Vice President, Gary Thomas says "A functioning real estate market can again lead this country out of recession." Indeed, historically this has always been the case.

Trust an expert... call a Realtor. Call your Realtor or visit www.cdaRealtors.com to search properties on the Multiple Listing Service or to find a Realtor member who will represent your best interests.

Jill Satterly is this year's president of the Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors. Jill and the association invite your feedback and input for this column. You may contact them by writing to the Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors, 409 W. Neider, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815 or by calling (208) 667-0664.