Over Labor Day weekend, Utah governor Gary Herbert announced that the Utah Housing Corporation will be offering 2,000 new grants in the amount of $4,000.00 each. These grants follow the same guidelines as the original Home Run program that was so successful this spring. To be eligible, a homebuyer must purchase a newly built, never lived in home.
While I think this is a fantastic way to leverage the federal stimulus money that Utah has recieved, I am mildly concerned that incenting people to buy new construction will spur unneeded home building in Utah. A large part of the housing problem is being caused by an oversupply of housing inventory. The last thing our market needs is more inventory putting downward pressure on home prices. Hopefully this program will help to clean up the exsting inventory of home builders without tempting those builders to add inventory that will end up hurting all homeowners in the process.
Time will tell...
No comments:
Post a Comment