Talkin' 'bout the tax-credit generation

Re: 'Understanding housing tax credits' (March 5)

Dear Editor: 

Not only is the $8,000 tax credit the best kept secret in the country, it has the power to turn this whole ship around if only the "experts" would consider its demographic impact. The generation to which this credit appeals is Gen Y or the Echo Boom, the under-30 crowd that rivals the Baby Boom in size and numbers.

Since every first-time buyer causes up to three sales, or absorbs up to three properties, we need only ONE of them for every THREE available homes -- and they are out there in the numbers necessary. But the picture is not being painted correctly.

The industry as a whole is not embracing the credit and is instead mourning the failure of the give-it-to-everyone $15,000 credit. That credit would have appealed more to trade-up buyers than to first-time buyers and would have resulted in an insurmountable level of inventory as the "trade-up buyers" would have instantly put their homes up for sale in order to qualify.

We need to ALL be promoting the tax credit to first-time buyers. We need to all understand how large this demographic is and the surge of demand they have the potential to bring at the starter level of the market; the resulting absorption rate; and the ultimate trade-up activity where people could ultimately be driven up the ladder and into the hands of a builder.

We're not getting any help from the mainstream media -- it's up to us. We as an industry have the tool we need to bring about a recovery.

Susan Rossi
RE/MAX 2000
Crete, Ill.

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