Word: homely
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Barry Berkus, president of B3 Architects, sees another trend in the offing: multigenerational housing that includes multiple master-bedroom suites. We're not there yet, but overlay the aging boomers with the unemployment rate and the burgeoning habit of college graduates to bounce back home for a while, and what's needed is a space that can handle a family that looks nothing like Ozzie and Harriet...
...first-time-home-buyer tax credit that's been helping juice the housing market is set to expire on Nov. 30. A lot of people don't want to see that happen. Since some of those people are in Congress, there's a decent chance the credit will be extended into 2010. Among the bills floating about are ones that would grow the amount to $15,000 and make all home buyers - not just those who haven't owned before - eligible. One policy-analysis shop puts the odds of some extension at 2 to 1, despite a cost that could...
...most realms, in fact, the return to normality is under way. Banks are paying back TARP funds. Cash for Clunkers has faded into the sunset. The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board has declared the recession over, and home prices are inching upward...
...does the home-buyer tax credit persist? First, because of fear. Falling house prices, necessary though they were, triggered a lot of the mess we're in, and the thought of quashing a nascent recovery naturally leads to thoughts of another round of repercussions. Home sales have been growing for months, but a one-time pullback - like the one we saw in August - can still send chills down spines...
...Worse yet, by extending the home-buyer tax credit, especially to existing homeowners, we run the risk of creating a situation where it never goes away. If a tax credit - or any other economic benefit - sticks around long enough, people start feeling entitled to it, even if it was originally supposed to be temporary. In academic literature this is called the endowment effect. Taking away such a program once it's ingrained can be a monumental political challenge. It's not just that expanding the home-buyer tax credit would cost $50 billion to $100 billion this year...