As the current economic crisis has plainly shown, our country’s financial well-being affects not just our own citizens but people around the world. I felt that keenly during a recent trip to Japan, where I represented the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and shared our view of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Other countries are looking for positive signs from the United States, and one of the most convincing signs will be a recovery of the housing industry. During my visit, I told our counterparts in Zennichi, the All Japan Real Estate Association, that our industry won’t fully recover until we see an increase in mortgage capital flowing to qualified buyers and a reduction in inventory.

A few days after I returned from Japan, I was encouraged by news that the Federal Reserve would buy housing-related debts. This is one of the key actions we’ve been advocating ever since the Treasury altered its course on how it would use the $700 billion recovery package passed in September. 

In a four-point plan we submitted to Congress in October, NAR called for the Treasury Department to purchase mortgage-backed securities from banks to provide price stabilization for housing. In a Nov. 25 announcement, the Fed said it would purchase up to $100 billion in debt from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae and would spend another $500 billion on mortgage-backed securities.

The Fed’s decision will ensure that government relief funds are going not just into bank coffers and acquisitions but also into creating more funds for mortgages. As a result, long-term interest rates should come down.

Further steps are needed. As your 2009 president, I’ll continue to make the case that our four-point plan is needed to restore consumer confidence in housing. The plan calls on Congress to:

• Make the temporary $7,500 tax credit for home buyers who haven’t owned in the past three years available to all purchasers and eliminate the repayment requirement.

• Make the 2008 FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac loan limits permanent.

• Target more of the bank rescue funds on mortgage relief and foreclosure mitigation, and create a federal mortgage interest buydown program to make below-market interest rates available.

• Permanently bar banks and banking conglomerates from engaging in real estate brokerage and management.

The President and Congress have many economic priorities in the months ahead, and we applaud both President Bush and President-elect Obama for taking proactive steps to stabilize our nation’s economy. But more can be done, and we will work with Congress and the new administration toward that end. 

Please help secure passage of NAR’s four-point plan by calling or writing to your representatives in Congress. Let them know that national—and global—economic recovery depends on strong and stable real estate markets.

Show your support for NAR’s four-point plan at www.realtoractioncenter.com.