Deficit Commission Proposal: Housing Impact

 

Co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles (shown here) had proposals affecting the tax code, which were actually a menu of three (or five, depending on how you count them) tax reform proposals.
Courtesy of University of North Carolina

The co-chairs of the president’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform have published a discussion draft of budget proposals aimed at reducing the federal budget deficit.

The Commission’s ideas deserve to be taken seriously for highlighting and considering the nation’s long-term fiscal challenges, even if some of the proposed policy changes are ill-suited to short-term macroeconomic goals or long-term policy commitments. Among the proposed changes are many that would negatively affect homeowners and businesses in the housing sector.

The report from the co-chairs, former Senators Alan Simpson and former White Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, proposes fundamental changes to America’s tax code, as well as changes to federal spending and entitlement programs.

For future and recent homebuyers, homeowners and housing sector stakeholders, the proposed changes are harmful, reducing housing demand and producing windfall losses for existing homeowners. This could prove to have disastrous results for the landscape industry which relies heavily on the housing industry.

– Courtesy of NAHB