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Hernando Today

Builders Hope For Congressional Rescue

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By TONY HOLT

Hernando Today

Published: October 3, 2008

SPRING HILL - Nothing is for certain if and when Congress passes the financial rescue plan.

Home builders here and across the country are pleading with their representatives to approve it. There is no hope otherwise, they say.

"Something must be done," said Stuart Glover, president of Palmwood Builder in Spring Hill, who recently wrote a letter to Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite asking her to vote for the proposed plan.

Brown-Waite voted no on the bailout bill Friday. She called it "stomach-turning" and thought it compensated those responsible for the ongoing financial crisis.

"There has to be something, or else we'll have another 1929 Depression," Glover argued. "Customers are having trouble getting any kind of mortgage."

The plummeting home crisis, credit epidemic and growing number of foreclosures have caused panic on Wall Street and elsewhere.

Few are suffering more than home builders, who are scrambling to establish any form of business credit, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

The revised plan - which previously had been referred to as a bailout and was criticized in its earliest form as too generous to Wall Street executives - was approved Wednesday by the U.S. Senate. It is expected to go before the House this week.

Sandy Dunn, chairman of the NAHB, called the $700 billion financial rescue plan the country's "last chance to save the global economy from a very deep and painful recession, or worse."

The association sent a letter to every member of Congress to show its support of the legislation.

"This is the absolute worst downturn in our 51 years of building here," said Glover. "Nothing comes close."

Dudley Hampton Jr., president of the Hernando Builders Association, said the market is in dire need of a credit boost, which the rescue plan would provide.

"It's the last chance to get some credit and liquidity back into the market without some financial institutions failing," he said. "The real rescue here is Main Street. On Wall Street, you pay your money and take your chances. It's really about Main Street."

Glover's company has sustained six downturns in the market in the last five decades, he said. There always was the belief the rough times would last only a short time because of the constant flow of people moving to Florida.

"We felt we'd be fairly well insulated and recover quickly if there had been another downturn," Glover admitted.

What's even more baffling to local builders is that the stock market crash was incongruous with what they had seen during the previous two months. The local industry was showing signs of life.

"We started to see slight increases in traffic at our model locations and a few more sales," Glover said. "Before that, it was like a twilight zone. People were finally coming out and talking with us."

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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