A RE/MAX Broker/Owner from Illinois found herself mentioned in several national newspapers after a spirited exchange with President Barack Obama at an Aug. 17 town hall meeting in her home state.
LuAnn Lavine was quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the Chicago Sun-Times and several other prominent news outlets (including CNN, NBC and MSNBC) after telling the president that problems in Washington, D.C., have wiped out the housing momentum she was seeing in her local market: "I saw a turnaround come May and June. My phone was ringing. I was busier than all get-out. I could see that the country – yes, we are in rehab. People have made adjustments and I saw progress. Since the debt ceiling fiasco in Washington, the phones have stopped. We have no consumer confidence after what has just happened. Interest rates are a record low. I should be out working 14 hours a day, and I am not."
Read what she says about the experience in an Aug. 29 Inman News article.
The Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Hometown Advantage in Geneseo, Ill., challenged the president on housing when she was picked to address him during the question-and-answer portion of the meeting. She was especially direct when his initial answer focused on his administrations's efforts to keep people in their homes, saying "the loan modification system has been a nightmare. Short sales are a nightmare."
Afterward, Lavine was flooded by reporters looking for follow-up interviews – not to mention texts and voicemails from colleagues expressing their pride and appreciation.
Watch Lavine's exchange with the president on YouTube.
Here is a transcript of the exchange (email your comments to editor@remax.net):
LUANNE LAVINE: My name is Luanne Levine, and I own a local real estate company here in Henry County, over in Geneseo. So you know we're I'm headed: housing. Every week I sit around the kitchen table of families that are here today and I listen to the stories of a lost job, upside down in their house. And they ask, Luanne, how can you help? What programs are out there?
I have to say I saw a turnaround come May and June. My phone was ringing. I was busier than all get-out. I could see that the country -- yes, we are in rehab. People have made adjustments and I saw progress.
Since the debt ceiling fiasco in Washington, the phones have stopped. We have no consumer confidence after what has just happened. Interest rates are a record low. I should be out working 14 hours a day, and I am not. What are your future plans in helping middle-class America -- Generation X and Y and middle-class America will get the country out of where we are, and I want to know what are your contingent plans?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, you're absolutely right that housing has been at the key – at the core of a lot of the hardships we've been going through over the last two and a half years. And that's why we've made it such a priority to try to help families stay in their homes the last two and a half years. And that's why we've made it such a priority to try to help families stay in their homes if they can still afford the home. There were some folks who couldn't -- who bought homes they couldn't afford, but there were a lot of folks who just had a run of bad luck because somebody lost a job or lost a shift. And so what we've been trying to do is push the banks, push the servicers to do loan modifications that will allow people to stay in their homes and will try to buck up housing prices generally.
LUANNE LAVINE: Can I -- Can I please say --
THE PRESIDENT: Sure, go ahead.
LUANNE LAVINE: The loan modification system has been a nightmare. Short sales are a nightmare. And the lenders are so tight and you have to be so perfect, and it's not a perfect world.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what we've been trying to do is make sure that -- we've probably had a couple of million loan modifications that have been taking place. The problem is, is that the housing market is so big. And so a lot of families have just had to work down their debts, and they've been successful -- and as you said, we were starting to see things bottom out and confidence start picking up.
Now, I can't excuse the self-inflicted wound that was that whole debt debate. It shouldn 't have happened the way it did. We shouldn't have gotten that close to the brink. It was inexcusable. But moving forward, I think a lot of this has to do with confidence, as you said.
LUANNE LAVINE: A hundred percent.
THE PRESIDENT: Companies have never been more profitable. They're seeing record profits; it's just they're hoarding their cash, they're not investing it. A lot of banks have now recovered, but they're not lending the way they used to. Now, they need to have slightly tighter lending criteria than they used to have, obviously, because that was part of the reason that we had that housing bubble. But one of the things we've talked about is, can we encourage banks now to take a look at customers who are good credit risks, but are being unfairly punished as a consequence of what happened overall?
There are some other ideas that we're looking at on the housing front. But I'll be honest with you, when you've got many trillions of dollars' worth of housing stock out there, the federal government is not going to be able to do this all by itself. It's going to require consumers and banks and the private sector working alongside government to make sure that we can actually get the housing moving back again. And it will probably take this year and next year for us to see a slow appreciation again in the housing market.
What we can do is make sure we don't do any damage. And that's what happened in this last month. That's why I was so frustrated by it, and I suspect that's why you were so frustrated by it as well.
COMMENTS (4)
After watching Obama’s mendacious cant until my head nearly exploded, I moved to the 21 minute mark to shut him up. As to his answers to her questions, the facts are, if we would repeal Sarbanes-Oxley and Mark to Market, repeal Dodd/Frank, the housing market would come back on its own. This entire issue was government driven, and it is held in place by flawed government policies, headed by this person.
– Jim Morgan, RE/MAX Ability Plus, Carmel, Ind.
I am proud of LuAnn representing, but we need a major focus on Congress. If Congress would focus their agenda more on the needs of the American people vs the take down of the President we might see some progress.
– Patricia Parker, New Jersey
I think LuAnn, even though she was nervous, came across very sincere, honest, calm and as a business owner she was very credible. I think her explanation of her background and the current status of her business climate was excellent. I think Obama did not answer any of her concerns nor her question about what he plans to do. I do not think he plans to do anything to help the real estate industry or any other industry. I think he has done more damage in 2 1/2 yrs than any other President in our history and I am in terror of what he will ruin next. I believe most of our country is in jeopardy of losing what it means to be an American. Much of this cannot be blamed on D.C. or the politicians because, we, the people, have created our own debt crisis. We have become such a materialistic society and were riding high on the decades of success and growth. Mistakenly thinking it would continue forever. Well, our wake up call has arrived. I have sold real estate in Michigan for 23 yrs. I've been a RE/MAX Broker/Owner for 15 yrs. I saw the foreclosure and banking issues coming and took my first REO listing almost 14 yrs ago. That market has taken over our business and lives for many years. But, with the government buying up all of the bad mortages for 20 months that changed the landscape of our current market. The banks have so many fewer properties to sell and the government is so loaded down with those properties it can't keep its head above water and is drowning. The incompetence is incomprehensible. Along with the incompetence is the mistrust. Those people who created the whole Fannie Mae mess were given absolutely NO consequences for what they have done to our country. I lost most of my faith in my government and Obama as a leader with the decision not to prosecute those responsible. If I, or any other American, had done those things we would be behind bars. This housing disaster was no accident – it was a crime perpetrated on our country and its people and has gone unpunished. I agree with LuAnn 100% – the loan modification effort was yet another government fiasco, just like the cash for clunkers, just like the short sales push, just like the MERS mess. In every instance the government thinks they are "helping" but all they have done is leave a path of destruction much like "Irene" just did. Families do not know what to do or where to turn so they are walking away with their pride in shreds. If the government had not bought all of those bad mortgages the banks who were foolish enough to get themselves pulled into the bad paper mess would have gone under but the remaining banks would have been stronger. Those properties would have made their way into the market and would have been bought by young people, investors, families but now NONE of those segments of the population trust the government owned properties enough to buy them. Obama was right about ONE thing – people and businesses are hoarding their money and they live daily in fear for their/our future and they pray for a leader to bring us out of the mess we are in to save our great country for our children and grandchildren. Even though the position many Americans find themselves in today was partially self-created – I have NO confidence in my government to get us out of this mess. My family, and others we know, are taking steps that I thought I would never be taking – to prepare for a future that I could never imagine but that could be a reality, thank God we own farmland and can be self-sufficient if it ever came to that.
– Gaylene Johnson, RE/MAX Riverwood
I think LuAnn Lavine should be applauded for getting to the point with President Obama. She was direct with her questions and definitely made her case regarding the problems in our housing markets! Thanks LuAnn for representing many RE/MAX Brokers across the nation!
– Peggy J. Schram, REMAX Alliance, Fort Collins, Colo. |
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