[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 27, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E779-E780]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCING THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA $5,000 HOMEBUYER CREDIT ACT OF 
                                  1999

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 27, 1999

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I have chosen today to introduce the 
District of Columbia $5,000 Homebuyer Credit Act of 1999, a permanent 
version of my $5,000 homebuyer credit, because Franklin Raines and the 
Fannie Mae have significantly increased the credit's value to D.C. 
residents by monetizing the $5,000 credit. This means that D.C. 
residents will be able to convert the $5,000 homebuyer credit to cash 
to help make the down payment on a house. The credit alone will be the 
down payment on a $100,000 house in the District. As a result, for a 
$100,000 house, no down payment will be necessary.
  I am pleased that the President has already agreed to a one-year 
extension of the credit in his budget, and I am hopeful that Congress 
will approve this extension. The President acted because, like the 
Congress, he realizes that if the District is to regain permanent 
solvency, there is no substitute for rapidly increasing the number of 
residents. The indispensable increase in the home sales we are seeing 
in the city today cannot continue without a stable incentive that will 
be here for the foreseeable future. The tax base loss has been so 
devastating that the job before us is literally one of repopulation. 
The District has not yet regained a tax base sufficient to sustain the 
city. Its competitive position with the suburbs means it will not 
regain its tax base without very substantial incentives.
  The $5,000 homebuyer credit, limited by income, has proven itself as 
cheap way for the federal government to have a large effect on reviving 
the city. The credit has been significantly responsible for the 
phenomenal result that D.C. is now number one in home sales in the 
country. Home sales in the District increased an extraordinary 50% last 
year, ``the fastest pace in the nation,'' according to a local 
analysis. We have gone from 14,206 homesales in 1997, when the credit 
was enacted, to 21,406 last year. We have come from a few years back 
when people couldn't sell to today, when people can't buy. This is why 
Fannie Mae's effort to increase the supply of affordable housing and to 
monetize the tax credit are so welcome.
  The $5,000 homebuyer credit, coupled with a rapid increase in housing 
stock and investment, are the best hope for increasing our population 
on a permanent basis. When people buy homes, they lay down roots and 
are less likely to flee. The District has already lost three times the 
population in this decade as the city lost during the entire 1980s, and 
D.C. is still losing population. The credit helped

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stimulate new population and could ultimately help turn the city's 
population loss around.
  For years, I have searched for natural ways to increase revenue for 
the District. My large tax cut bill, the progressive flat tax, is a 
major leap forward and is still the most important initiative we could 
take to make the nation's capital thrive on its own. I will soon be 
announcing a bill to make the entire city an enterprise zone. It will 
spread citywide the lucrative tax breaks for D.C. businesses I won in 
the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act.
  However, as the city looks for revenue, it must not lose sight of the 
reality that there can be no permanent increase in revenue without a 
permanent increase in our population. Investment in housing is the best 
way to achieve not only a livable city in all eight wards, but a 
thriving city of taxpaying residents who own their own homes.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation critical to the 
continued revitalization of the nation's capital.

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