guy houston

East Bay’s Diablo Black Men’s Group Hosted Guy Houston Today!

As part of the DBMG’s monthly breakfast, Guy Houston was invited to update the membership on the challenges facing our State government’s current budget issues.

 Our region’s representative to our State legislature, Guy Houston, was the guest speaker at the Diablo Black Men’s Group monthly breakfast in San Ramon today. Mr. Houston gave a brief update on the budget issues facing the State, and then took questions from the audience on a wide range of topics.

Mr. Houston started off with a general description of our Governor taking the position of cutting 10% off of all aspects of the State’s budget to balance the current fiscal crisis.  But, he did expand on what a 10% cut actually means. It actually means 10% off the budget after all of line items are given an inflation increase – meaning that the actual cuts are from 1% to 2%. ( Do not try this same accounting method at home when you trim your monthly budget by 10%. At your home it will actually mean a 10% cut.)

Mr. Houston’s two areas that he aims to protect are schools – K through 12, and infrastructure – our transportion structures. Another challenge with the budget is not only the lowering of revenue, but the increased debt service from the borrowing the State has done over the recent years. This has been in the form of bonds guaranteed by the State that require interest payments. He commented that our State’s income is based on a “boom or bust” annual planning method. Some years there is plenty of income, and some years there is a significant decline. Because of this State revenue cycle, he suggested that there be a broader sales tax implemented in order to smooth out these up and down years of revenue generally based on income taxes.

A solution to our totally inadequate funding of transportation infrastructure would be to set up public/private partnerships for toll roads similar to what Orange County has accomplished in Southern California. He gave the example that in 1970 11% of the State budget was allocated for transportation infrastructure.  Today it is .75% of the budget, which doesn’t even fund the road maintenance that is required. It was an informative presenation and a lively Q&A time.  Mr. Houston will be leaving State government after this term and be a candidate for the Contra Costa Board Of Supervisors.

The breakfast forum was with a group – the DBMG, that was formed in the mid-1990s as an organization of men who wanted to use their collective influence to enhance the lives of their members, families, and their community. Besides a keen focus on providing college scholarships for economically challenged Bay Area youth, they promote awareness of prostate cancer, diabetes, and heart disease to it’s members and the communities they serve.  Please contact me if you would like more information about how to support the Diablo Black Men’s Group and their community projects.  Until next time…

guy houston

The Congress Passed The Real Estate Economic Stimulus Bill Today!

President Bush is still searching for an improvement of his legacy…this may be IT!

Today the Congress sent President Bush the real estate economic stimulus package. This is BIG! This morning the Realtors Marketing Association had our State legislator, Guy Houston, share with us his views of not only the importance of this bill, but several other very important legislative measures that need to be passed as soon as possible for Californians. I will give you more information about his comments later in this article. Below is the email I received from the California Association of Realtors regarding the stimulus package passed today.

The Senate version expands rebate checks for seniors and disabled veterans and includes the same increases to the conforming loan limits for both GSE and FHA found in the House stimulus package. The House just passed the Senate version of the bill and it will now be sent to the White House. The President is expected to sign the legislation by the end of the week, ahead of the Congressional self-appointed deadline of February 15^th. The increase in the conforming loan limits will last through 2008, but C.A.R. and NAR continue to lobby for FHA and GSE reform, making these increases permanent.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a stimulus package last week that raised the FHA and conforming loan limits to as high as $729,750 in high-cost areas. By increasing the loan limits, borrowers will see immediate relief with new liquidity in the mortgage market and the nation will see an additional 300,000 home sales. Research shows that an increase in the FHA limit would enable an additional 138,000 Americans to purchase homes, and 200,000 families to refinance their homes safely and affordably.

Additionally, raising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s (GSEs) conforming loan limit will provide immediate relief to borrowers and alleviate downward pressure on current housing markets. For instance, increasing the GSE loan limit could result in more than 300,000 additional home sales and strengthen current home prices by 2-3%.

The critical role that GSEs play in providing liquidity to the mortgage market has never been more evident than it is today. The national subprime meltdown has had a dramatic impact on both the cost and availability of mortgages in many markets. Since August 2007, the interest rates for jumbo borrowers have been more than 1 percentage point higher than conforming loans, which can cost homeowners up to $400 month in higher interest payments.

Guy Houston’s additional comments today focused on the bill he is sponsoring in the California legislature that will allow consumers to more easily deal with their lenders as they work through the real mortgage crisis that is actually ruining families throughout the State. He also addressed the bill that he sponsored that requires builders that pile on additional fees to new homes to have those fees be spent within the community where they are charged. The California Association of Realtors was not pleased with his bill because they viewed it as a tax. But, today he again explained that it is the first time that the State has mandated developers to spend any money they collect from these fees within the community collected from. Until this bill was passed the developer could spend that money anywhere they wanted. The Realtors Marketing Association has Mr. Houston speak each year giving us an update on what is happening with legislation that impacts real estate. He again did a great job of keeping all of us informed today.

I will keep you posted as to any new developments with any legislative issues that impact our East Bay real estate community. Until next time…