The Housing Market and Federal Interest Rates

The housing market is in trouble, and it does threaten to seriously hurt the rest of our economy. Listening to National Public Radio today I heard that people's spending habits are affected by the value of their home. In other words, if you have a house worth $300,000 and you only make $55,000 a year you tend to spend outside of your salary range. Now, this is disturbing all by itself, but the fact is that home appraisals are falling and freezing. Home sales are slowing dramatically, and it has become a buyers market. When it is a sellers market home values rise and people make lots of money on the sale of their homes. Not only are home sales going to continue to go down, but they are going to go down even more because home construction has almost stopped. The natural slowing down rate is going to get worse as the new homes that were going to be on the market do not go on the market because they were never built in the first place.

This is going to have an immediate effect on all industries that make the raw materials for homes. Lumber, electrical, stoneware, ceramics, chemicals. Tens of thousands of immigrant workers are going to seek work elsewhere, fewer jobs are going to be available for ALL people living in this country, and people are going to stop spending as much as economic conditions restrict and businesses respond by getting rid of or reducing bonuses. Management is going to get laid off.

The only thing that can make this housing market turn around is the Federal Reserve Bank lowering interest rates (actually they should have never raised them in the first place, and certainly not as high as they are). The unfortunate thing is that the Fed is a private bank, a company. They have no accountability to the public, to which they have so much control over. How then can they be made to stop the deterioration of the housing market?

Maybe the best way would be to return the control of our currency and its value to the U.S. Congress - as it is stated in the Constitution.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Does anyone want to write a letter to your Senators and Congresperson? What should we say in a letter? I would recommend a letter because having experieince with this, and working in a Florida State senator's office I know that letters are given more wieght than emails.