Gabel argues for new home buyer tax credit
October 1, 2010
ATLANTA -- A new home buyer tax credit would pump some air into a market in need of life support, Georgia State University College of Law Professor Jessica Gabel wrote in an opinion piece published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In the Sept. 28 piece, Gabel, an assistant professsor, takes the pro stance on the question, "Should Congress adopt a new tax credit for buying a home?" while Carter Doyle, a visiting professor of economics at GSU, offers an opposing view. Gabel writes that the government’s economic response to the collapse of the housing market is falling short.
"The government Band-Aids - a hodgepodge of mortgage modification and anti-foreclosure programs - are insufficient. And when something like the home buyer tax credit generates even a hint of improvement, we abandon it," she writes.
"What we need is that same long-term investment strategy to apply universally. It should not be our policy to bail out only the few who fit the label ’too big to fail’ just because they have more money to lose. Ask anyone facing foreclosure next Tuesday at the Fulton County Courthouse how much they have to lose.
"The American Dream no longer means owning a home. It’s simply holding onto the home that is the dream for so many. The home buyer tax credit is not just a mechanism that encourages people to buy homes. It also provides an out to those with oppressive mortgages by enlarging the buyer market. It’s also a benefit to banks that are hefting a portfolio of foreclosed homes in their wallets"
Read both opinion pieces in full on the AJC website.
Contact:
Wendy Cromwell
Director of Communications
404.413.9050