Week of September 29, 2008
►NAHB State & Local Issues Fund Continues to Help Builders [ more ]
►9th Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Arizona's Immigration Statute [ more ]
►Fire Official Surge Sweeps Sprinkler Mandate to Victory [ more ]
►County Leaders Express Support for Housing Industry [ more ]
►Philadelphia Foreclosure Program an Example for Cities [ more ]
►NACo Releases Results of Foreclosure Survey [ more ]
►Studies Find New Homes Are Tiny Piece of Carbon Footprint Solution [ more ]
►New Study Shows Growth in State Lobbying [ more ]
►2008 Election Summary [ more ]
On the House: Assessing the market for houses
By Al Heavens , Philadelphia Inquirer
I've been spending a lot of time trying to determine the meaning of all these efforts to rescue the economy, especially the housing market.
I've talked to economists, housing experts, lenders, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and consumers; I've read all the Web sites and blogs and newspapers.
Frankly, I'm tired and my eyes are blurry, and, with all of that, I'm still not sure if the situation is getting better.
For example, one provision of the new Housing Assistance Act is effectively preventing low- and moderate-income first-time buyers - the group that helped jump-start real estate sales in the 1990s - from entering the market.
Effective Wednesday, seller-financed down-payment assistance - either through nonprofit groups such as Nehemiah Corp. or local and state governments - will be prohibited for FHA-insured loans.
"I can't dispute Congress' thinking that, even with everything we gave marginal buyers, they still couldn't make it," said Christopher J. Artur, broker/owner of Artur Realty in Mayfair, where a significant number of buyers are first-timers.
Older towns seek greater attention
By ANNIE TASKER, Bucks County Courier Times
More than a dozen state lawmakers and hundreds of community activists gathered Sunday to take on issues of aging infrastructure, school funding and housing in the Philadelphia area's oldest suburbs.
The meeting at St. Patrick's Church in Norristown was organized by Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project, a nonprofit organization of municipal and community organization leaders from Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware counties where older suburbs are competing for resources with more recently developed neighbors.
Many of the “first suburbs” in question —Bristol and Norristown, for example — are pedestrian-friendly communities with parks, churches and easy access to public transportation, said Jacquelynn Puriefoy-Brinkley, council member in Yeadon, Delaware County.
Judge backs local control in gas drilling
By AMANDA CREGAN, Philadelphia Inquirer
Nockamixon took home a victory in court Monday over companies that want to drill for oil and natural gas in Upper Bucks.
A Bucks County judge ruled against Arbor Resources and Pasadena Oil and Gas Wyoming, both of Traverse City, Mich., and Hook ’Em Energy Partners of Austin, Texas.
Judge Clyde Waite sided with the township’s authority to enforce local ordinances to regulate natural gas and oil drilling in the township.
The gas companies argued in a lawsuit filed in May that local ordinances are not binding because they are trumped by regulations already in place under Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Act.
Arbor and its associates say they have met state drilling requirements.
Pa. measure seeks repair money: Voters will decide on $400 million in infrastructure loans.
By Mark Scolforo, Philadelphia Inquirer
Pennsylvania's sewer and water systems could get a substantial infusion of cash for repairs and upgrades if voters on Nov. 4 approve a referendum question asking for $400 million in new borrowing.
Experts say the money is sorely needed but still amounts to little more than a drop in the bucket when it comes to the state's overall water and sewer infrastructure needs, estimated in the coming decades to reach the tens of billions of dollars.
"A lot of it is 60 to 100 years old, it's dilapidated, it's collapsing," said Brenda Reigle, executive director of the Pennsylvania Utility Contractors Association in Harrisburg, whose members hope to perform much of the work. "It clearly needs to be replaced for the public health and safety."
The ballot question directs that the money could also be used to build or repair storm-water runoff projects, address certain pollution controls, and fund nutrient credits that would encourage reducing the environmental effect of agricultural chemicals.
