Bulldoze 1 Million New Homes or else the US Economy falls off a cliff

Here is a summary of the idea to help stabilize the US economy.

Bulldoze vacant new homes that aren't selling.


Video Story www.kpho.com...


There is an over supply of new homes. Too many were built during the boom. Right now there are a million vacant homes in the US.

There are two advantages to bull dozing vacant new home inventory.

1) A reduction in supply will help to stabilize housing prices

2) Construction jobs would be created to build new homes on top of the new homes that were bulldozed.

Douglas Duncan, vice president and chief economist for Fannie Mae, raised a provocative idea ... Some of the misconceived housing developments built during the boom years might have to be torn down because they don't make financial sense.

voices.washingtonpost.com...

If house prices could just reach bottom, we might have a shot at figuring out what the banks' toxic securities are worth. Individual uncertainty about home values would also be resolved, giving people a clearer idea of their own wealth (or lack thereof). People may even rush to buy houses again, believing they are getting a great bargain.

What can be done about this persistent excess supply? Perhaps the answer is to eliminate some of it.

www.economist.com...

[edit on 9-6-2010 by Freedom or Death]

What? bulldoze new homes to build new homes? ROFL
Thats as stupid as bailing out the banks with more money from the banks

Bulldozing perfectly fine homes would be a big waste of resources. You could instead put 1 million homeless families in those homes. Tell them if they find a job within the next 3 years, they'll come up with a contract for a mortgage at current market prices whenever they apply. In the meantime, the formerly homeless are responsible for upkeep on the homes, taxes, utilities, etc. all except the mortgage payment for now. The only sticking point would be who pays if the occupant decides to walk away instead of picking up the mortgage. You could have banks pay.

You could even come up with mortgages based upon past income and live in the home rent free for 3 years or until a permanent job is acquired to pay typical mortgage payments. The 3 lost years of no payments could simply be added into the cost of the mortgage later on. You could even structure the mortgage value preferable to the future home owner based on either todays current market price or the price 3 years from now sort of like company's stock option plans before they did away with the vast majority of them. Surely we have smarter people here in this country who can think of better ideas than wasting the resources of 1 million homes. Of course such creative thinking might cause home prices to rise and cause a sudden drop in the number of homeless people and a boost in economic expansion. That is not something the current government seems to be good at. I'm really starting to believe they want to destroy the US. Even our space program will be in moth balls within a year and the US will have to hitch a ride to go into space.

I'm embarrassed that this idea is coming out of Arizona.

its hard to imagine a sane individual thinking it is better to bulldoze down new houses

how does that though even cross a mind

i have wanted a home my whole life and because of the price increases iin the last 7-8 years i have given up hope
its disgusting to think that anyone would tear them down stupid stupid stupid

I've been saying this to my friends for the last year. Not new homes but all those crappy ass houses and condos and townhouses that were built quick and shoddy with toxic loans and toxic manufactured wood. Bulldoze all that crap. All those crappy ass old houses that the uppies bought to fix up and flip. Its all toxic. I work in the construction industries so first hand I know this what we need. That crap will never sell. get rid of it.

Edit: Ok I had a heart bump. try to reclaim the good lumber.

[edit on 9-6-2010 by out west]

why not just give the home to deserving people like politicians? their hard work and labor have gone unoticed for too long, its time we reward those who work relentlessly behind the scene to make our life better.

only in america do people bulldoze perfect;y good homes. the selfishness in this act alone is unmeasurable. millions of hard working people are on the streets in this recession and we are bulldozing brand new houses.

[edit on 9-6-2010 by DOADOA]

In economics, there are lots of old jokes, metaphors, and other sayings revolving around the idea of "paying people to dig holes and then fill them up." This or a similar phrase was often used disparagingly during the cold war years to refer to the underlying illogic of socialism or similar ideas.

As usual, reality is more surreal than fiction. Only it turns out that the truth involves homes instead of holes.

Next up: Shudder as you contemplate the ways that (sur)reality might take the old phrase "destroying the village to save it" and give it a savage new 21st-century twist.

Originally posted by Freedom or Death
Here is a summary of the idea to help stabilize the US economy.

What fools. The Irish did this recently from what I hear. So what you stop deflationary pressure on housing prices. Yeah that's great. Just mess with the market some more.

Supply Demand=Price Discovery.

They did this last great depression. Burned fields and crops to keep up the prices. Even though they slashed yields by more than half it just made the problem worse, because there was no labour required to farm them. And people didn't have enough money or wages for food so they started dying.

Just like new homes. Pay one man to dig a hole, and pay another to fill it up again. The core idea of Keynesian economics. But what does one do when there are no workers? And therefore no income tax, less money in the economy?

Even as millions in the US are homeless they engage in such waste just to try and re inflate the bubble.

Free market is a sham.


[edit on 9-6-2010 by belial259]

While we're at it, let's employ a bunch of people to dig a hole, then fill it up with dirt.

Yes, I'm sure these kinds of actions are the most sane way to solve our problems.


EDIT: Just read the above posts. Looks like I was beaten to the punch.

[edit on 9-6-2010 by 30_seconds]

They've been doing that already over the past year or so.

I say tear down old houses that are unefficient. There are plenty of old houses that are poorly insulated, neglected beyond repair, or tons of other reasons that make more sense to bulldoze an older home.

On another story I read on the same topic someone mentioned donating them to organizations like Habitat For Humanity.

Things like that would do far more good all around than bulldozing a brand new home.

Originally posted by belial259
What fools. The Irish did this recently from what I hear. So what you stop deflationary pressure on housing prices. Yeah that's great. Just mess with the market some more.

Em..

That statement would be known as "A Fabrication to make yourself look good"..

"The Irish Fools" bulldozed our houses to bring down house prices?

ARE YOU FOR REAL???

And here was me thinking Australians were educated..

How "Foolishly Irish" of me..

I would have to say is this is one of the least thought out post I have seen,how could wasting millions of dollars make any sense,must be using Obamanomics I guess

in the last two depressions
prior to both WW's
the US sent big batches of illegals home.
the unemployed americans went back to work
the taxes got paid
the money stayed in the country
and the US recovered
no lets not do that
it might work a third time

[edit on 9-6-2010 by Danbones]

Originally posted by Dermo

Originally posted by belial259
What fools. The Irish did this recently from what I hear. So what you stop deflationary pressure on housing prices. Yeah that's great. Just mess with the market some more.

Em..

That statement would be known as "A Fabrication to make yourself look good"..

No it isn't. I don't know if they've started yet but if not it's in the books. And it's a stupid idea. Please try to research more, specifically Keynesian economics during the last great depression and the idea of a Malthusian decline. Here we can see the same type of flawed thinking repeated again.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Knocking over houses to increase demand and inflate the housing bubble again is as stupid as bailing out someone when you don't actually have any money.

Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency may knock down some vacant homes built during the country’s real-estate boom, the head of the agency said.

“We can all see land and half-built developments which should never have been contemplated,” NAMA chief executive Brendan McDonagh told a parliamentary committee in Dublin today. “It is hard for anyone with an objective view to see how they made sense even at the top of an overheated property market.”

Ireland’s stock of empty homes soared 30 percent to 345,000 in the three years through 2009 as the property market slumped, a report showed earlier this month. NAMA is buying loans with a nominal value of about 81 billion euros ($110 billion) from five lenders as part of a government plan to help the banking industry and can seize the underlying asset if borrowers don’t repay.

Bloomberg

No need to bulldoze any homes, the gulf oil diaster will make a million homes unihabitable.
So many homes will be needed to relocate people from the coastal areas.

reply to post by Freedom or Death

I don't know what your city is like, but in mine, we have a ton of empty, run down...would be beautiful if someone would just take an interest in them....boarded up houses!!

they were discarded, for the mcmansions!!!

so, well, everyone had to have the mc mansions, so may I suggest that we bulldoze the old boarded up eyesores instead??
and forget about building more since we seem to have more than we need....
this suggestion would only waste valuable resources!

Wow the irony of this idea coming from a chief economist of the big failed bank? is that right? An idea like this coming from a bank that cooked the books and then paid 50 million to the boss man who was a behind the scenes pal of Obama? these guys? Sounds familiar yes sir! These people got their educations from the prize in a box of cracker jacks

my 5:AM post response...

[edit on 9-6-2010 by alienreality]

Wow.

Keynesian economics strikes again. Let's knock it down just to build it up!!

While we're at it, let's toss money that we don't have, and never will, into a banking system run entirely by self-servings rip-off artists, all the while decreasing our purchasing power by printing more fiat currency!

What?

Oh yeah, the latter has already been done in spades.

Might as well carry on, in reality, there's nothing to lose.

reply to post by Freedom or Death


maricopa county, around Phoenix, has way too many trac homes,

another solution would be to DE-construct a good number of unsold homes in each developmant & create ~open spaces~, mini-parks/community gardens areas...

see the developers maxed out the density of residences to obtain their financing...the govt permits fees were happy, the banksters were happy with the opportunity to close more home sales, etc

bulldozing would be inefficient, but de-constructing & recycling is good sense policy, employing demolition crews, creating new job opportunities, & then the lots can be incorporated into the developments home-owners entity & the taxes due divvied among shareholders...[[ my take on the KPHO video was it was just drastic sensationalism to cath peoples eyes]]

the benefit would be for each community development/neighborhood
to cycle the deconstructed plats into valuable & attractive ammenities,
like mini-ponds/vegetable gardens, play-&-relax outdoor settings with ramadas or even water fountains--- making the community a desirious place to be and thereby increasing average home values to those interested in buying into that neighborhood/ trac village/ gated high density project of stucco mcMansions


just a passing idea

[edit on 9-6-2010 by St Udio]