Obama’s job-creation bill includes $15 for rehabilitation of vacant, foreclosed homes

President Barack Obama’s prime-time address on jobs didn’t focus much on housing. Most of the housing-related attention focused on his call for more refinancing, according to the Wall Street Journal's blog.

But the president’s job-creation bill actually includes some aid for housing: It would create a $15 billion fund to get construction workers to rehab vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Construction hiring has been weak because competition from foreclosures has held new home building at abysmally low levels.

Dubbed “Project Rebuild,” the White House initiative follows on the work of the administration’s Neighborhood Stabilization Plan, which gave grants to nonprofits in communities hard hit by foreclosures.

The goal of the program is twofold: Beyond creating jobs, it tries to chip away at problems in the housing market by “attacking the overhang of properties,” said Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan in an interview.

The concern is that foreclosed properties tend to be less well-kept than traditional homes, and the properties sell at a discount out of foreclosure.

For more information: http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2011/09/12/obama-program-calls-for-15b...