Where Our Focus Needs to Be: HOME
Where Our Focus Needs to Be: HOME
This is a real photo from a family who bought their first home. The company that built the home shared this inspiring picture with me. It's this picture that tells the true story of what we should all be focused on as we move forward crafting the future real estate finance system.
Right now the big debate rages on about home ownership in America, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the role of FHA, the emotional responses to Wall Street and bankers, the frustration with the housing collapse, and the role of government, all of which can have an enormous impact on any American family.
But the future of real estate finance isn't about any of these things really. It’s about shelter and family; about a simple thing most of us grew up with - a HOME.
I grew up in a wonderful home that my parents purchased together in the 1950's. They raised a family there. My dad commuted over an hour each way – every day for decades - to and from work just to make certain that the family had a home and community to grow older in.I learned to cut the back field with Dad’s cycle bar tractor. We put the basketball pole in the ground and filled the hole with concrete in our gravel driveway. I grew up with Jimmy down the street and neighbors on both sides of our home that lived there as long as we did.I lived there my entire young life - until I left and began my own adult journey.
Home was not about profits or capital gains. Home was not about anyone owing anyone anything based on fault or harm.Nobody talked of refinance markets, home equity lines of credit, mortgage interest deduction, or appreciation rates.We simply lived for the long term in a place we could paint, decorate, make additions to, and care for because it was our home.Home was a decision my parents made about how to raise a family in an environment that would be stable, nurturing, and one that would be there long into the future.
My mom and dad paid off the fixed rate mortgage after we kids had already moved on to our own lives. They eventually retired and moved to a smaller home where they spent their final years.
The picture above says it all through a child’s eyes – counting down the days until their family lives in a safe, secure home of their own.
As the housing debate continues, we have a duty, a responsibility to make sure we don't rush to destroy the very foundation of successful homeownership. Safe and affordable fixed rate financing for the average American family - one just starting off with a low down-payment, a stable job, and the simple desire to build what my parents did for us so many years ago – must remain viable well into the future. Before we pile on so many rules, regulations, and laws that they become a barrier altogether for many families’ dream of a strong home foundation, before we pile on so much that the refrigerator signs come down, let’s slow down and talk about the needs of American families of the future and make sure we get this right.
Balance must play into the next steps as we craft the future housing system. Let's get this right so that the kids of the future can share the same excitement as this child clearly does.
We, a group of stakeholders concerned about the future, crafted transition steps with the end in mind. We have an opportunity work together as stakeholders with policymakers to bring solutions for a strong future rather than continue to pile on and create more barriers for families. Look at the photo one last time and lets all focus on that as our goal.
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