Calculated Risk has a nice rundown of the various government programmes aimed at propping up US housing.
By Calculated’s count there are eight, including the Home Affordable Modification Plan (Hamp), various MBS-purchasing programmes, foreclosure moratoria and the Housing Tax Credit.
The big question is whether these programmes are actually doing anything to improve demand for housing, keep people in their homes or impact house prices.
Nevertheless, the (very small) effect of the Housing Tax Credit is something you can apparently see in the below chart, from Sean Corrigan at Diapason Commodities Management. It shows US new (one family) home sales versus domestic population:
And here’s what Corrigan says:
US new homes sales adjusted for population — close to its lows again … that almost invisible blip is the tax incentive programme… everyone else is buying existing homes — probably because many of these are repo’d and are very cheap… No new home sales, means no new building, of course, in simplistic terms — hence no material use and fewer jobs.
Related links:
House prices are too high, say economists – FT
Those cheery US housing numbers, reconsidered – FT Alphaville
Goldman says US gov’t boosted home prices by 5% – FT Alphaville