Senate Version of Cap and Trade Will Pummel Real Estate Market
Don’t say you haven’t been warned. Especially if you make a living in the building or real estate industry. The Senate version of the Cap and Trade bill coming out of the Environment and Public Works Committee is a doozy. Here is my summary version:
Home prices will go down. Closing home sales will be more difficult. Expenses for sellers will increase dramatically.
If the industry does not do all it can to fight this piece of legislation, you have made your own bed.
The following quote comes from the left leaning Politico, even they are aghast at the legislation.
That bill contains 397 new regulations. One of them would affect almost everyone who buys or sells a home. If Waxman-Markey becomes law, homes for sale that qualify as “federally related transactions” — which is almost all of them — would be required to undergo an environmental inspection.
Many politicians are upset about depressed housing prices. And true, environmental inspections are one way to raise them. But this is not the way to do it. Sen. Boxer should see to it that the Senate version of cap and trade leaves the environmental inspection provision out.
Inspections are not free. Nor is fixing the inevitable violations. Compliance with new energy-efficiency standards would make homes, especially older ones, more expensive. Selling one’s home would become even harder than it already is in this down market if Waxman-Markey-style cap and trade becomes law. via Politico.com
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Comment by Portland Real Estate on 23 September 2009:
We do need a cap and trade of some sort, but it needs to be put together carefully or we will just sour and slow any progress in the market that we have been seeing recently.
-Tyler
Comment by Genevieve on 23 September 2009:
I work for a builder, so we’ve been on this path a while. I think environmental restrictions are important if we all still want a planet to sell houses on. Yes, new restrictions are inconvenient, but let’s not overlook our responsibility to preserve our planet for future generations vs. serving our personal agendas. There will be growing pains, but in the long run it is the right thing to do, it will create new markets, new jobs and better houses.
Pingback by Housing Market News: 9/24/09 « AccuriZ on 24 September 2009:
[...] Senate Version of Cap and Trade will Pummel Real Estate Market [...]
Comment by Chelan Real Estate - Al Lorenz on 24 September 2009:
Alright, I’ll respond to the comments so far. We don’t NEED cap and trade. Right now, anybody is free to go out and hire an environmental inspector if they like. If you think that adds value to selling your home, by all means do it. What I don’t need is more interference in my life. What I don’t need it people who “think” something is important without doing any research into the facts. What I don’t need is people voting their “feelings” rather than doing their research. While nobody was looking, too many Americans turned into fascists who think they need to arrange the lives of everybody else.
Comment by Gainesville Real Estate on 25 September 2009:
I doubt this goes through and strongly oppose cap and trade.
Comment by Nelson Economist on 11 January 2010:
Cap and Trade is the WORST possible thing that could be done, especially now. It is SOLELY a Money-Making Scheme that will limit our ability to grow and to even exist. It is a direct attack on our livelyhood. It is a Wealth Transfer From the US to other nations stealing the wealth of the middle class in the US and giving it to the upper class in foreign nations.