NAR: Government Lapdogs

I am thoroughly unimpressed with the NAR. They recently sent an email to its members:

Here's our take on the Stimulis Bill and Treasury announcements made this week. We look at the Stimulis package AND the Treasury's package holistically, in compliment with each other - mostly because that's how the Obama team is looking at it. Your representatives, the NAR Board of Directors, asked us in November to do 4 things (with an unspoken but clearly understood mandate to PRESERVE what we already have). Here they are: 1) get loan limits raised for high cost areas, 2) make the $7,500 tax credit NOT a loan, 3) try to find ways to push interest rates down (which are higher than they should be due to systemic risk right now) by 200 basis points, and 4) help provide solutions to the foreclosure/short sale problem.

Is it reassuring that the NAR is looking at things the exact same way that the Government leadership is looking at it? An object approach would be more appropriate. The rest of the points are market meddling. Private lenders know how best to determine risk. Tax credits distort the market. Legislating interest rates is economic insanity and not capitalism. Foreclosures ARE the solution and not the problem.

The letter goes on to talk about all of the NAR's achievements and how great they are. The letter finishes:

While we study the Treasury specifics on their major role in providing the rest of the housing solution -- there is much more to come and we are working diligently with the Administration to help 'unclog the pipeline' and get capital flowing into housing again.

Nice. I am so looking forward to "much more to come". In response to this awful drivel, I sent the NAR my thoughts:

To Whom It May Concern:

Your claim of looking at the treasury package and stimulus bill “holistically” is very ironic. If you stepped outside of the narrow-minded real estate perspective, you would realize that this stimulus bill will only add to Realtor’s problems. This bill was not merely a real estate incentives bill, it was a spending bill with the bulk of the money going to non-job creating projects. So here are the points of why this bill is bad:

1. Unprecedented spending by our government will ultimately bring inflation which will ultimately bring higher interest rates.
2. The U.S. debt is skyrocketing and with more debt to be issued to pay for the bill, foreign nations will scoff at purchasing our debt unless its interest rates are high enough to justify the risk.
3. This bill creates few jobs. Lenders do not lend to people without jobs. Nor should they be expected to.

This bill is bad government and bad economics. The NAR has missed the implications of this bill and expects its members to be happy with short-term and near-sighted benefits. Unfortunately, the cost to Realtors will be much higher down the road now that this bill has passed.

The NAR should desist from behaving like the dog that brings its catch home to its owner and expects praise and adoration. The catch it brought home this time is a skunk.