A tax credit extension may encourage more sales.
To further encourage home ownership and stabilize the housing market, Congressman Tom Perriello joined colleagues from both sides of the aisle in a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner urging them to extend the homebuyer tax credit that was originally included as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. With the program set to expire on November 30, 2009, Perriello has joined in this bipartisan effort to press for its continuation given its proven successful track record.
“The homebuyer tax credit has been one of the real successes of the stimulus, as shown by rising home sales across the nation and right here in the 5th District. Stabilizing the housing market is a huge part of getting our economy turned around and we can’t take our eye off the ball for one second,” said Perriello.
According to the most recent quarterly sales report [PDF] from the Virginia Association of Realtors, total existing home sales in Virginia are up 5.3 percent in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the second quarter numbers, and have reached the highest quarterly total in 2009.
- The highest percentage increase in sales by quarter was in the North Central region (which includes the city of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Greene, Nelson and Fluvanna), up 29.1 percent since second quarter 2009.
- The South Central region (which includes the cities of Bedford, Danville, and Martinsville, and the counties of Appomattox, Bedford, Brunswick, Buckingham, Campbell, Charlotte, Cumberland, Halifax, Henry, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Pittsylvania, and Prince Edward) posted sales increases for the second consecutive quarter (+11.6 percent from the second quarter and +5.1 from the third quarter of 2008). In this region, sales jumped 45.9 percent in the second quarter from 623 units in the first quarter to 909 units.
Please click here to read the bipartisan letter to congressional leaders.
The letter states, in part: “At a time when billions are being offered to troubled financial institutions and mortgage rates remain borrower friendly, nothing is restoring confidence in the market like the first-time homebuyer tax credit. Yet, with an average closing time of three months, many potential homebuyers are nearly out of time to use the credit—and an extension is needed for the credit to maximize its impact for both homebuyers and our housing market.”
More troubling than Congressman Tom Perriello’s liberal voting record is his transparent effort to have it both ways. When he fails to get a bill passed or votes for an unpopular bill, he writes a letter. Take the unemployment extension just passed by the House. Virginia wasn’t included in the increased benefit, but he voted for the bill anyway. Then he wrote a letter to another Congressman to register his unhappiness that Virginia wasn’t included!
Perriello refuses to sign the petition to force Congress to post laws on the Internet 72 hours before voting. But he wrote a letter to liberal House leader Nancy Pelosi saying the policy should be adopted.
Rather than getting a law passed to stop Attorney General Eric Holder from reinstating the “assault weapon” ban, he wrote a letter complaining about it to President Obama.
Instead of introducing changes to Pelosi’s healthcare plan, Perriello signed a letter to Democrat party leaders suggesting they should adopt proposals that he heard from his constituents.
All these letters are just a blatant attempt at political cover. But it won’t work. We’re on to Perriello’s game. And the people of the Fifth District won’t let him get away with it.