The Perfect Storm (Politically that is. . .)

This past Tuesday, Americans came out en mass and relayed a message to the government, "We want change!" It seemed as if everything that could have gone wrong for the Republicans did and vice versa for the Democrats. Unfortunately it's not so apparent what kind of change we are about to receive. Most who follow politics, even casually, can identify general differences between Democrats and Republicans, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between many of today's candidates from either party.

New Democratic Congressmen like Heath Shuler (yes, the former Washington Redskins quarterback and hopefully he'll do better than in his last tenure in Washington) are social and fiscal conservatives, but also believe in a stronger welfare support system. And in the still hotly contested Virginia senate race between Republican incumbent George Allen and Senator Elect Democratic challenger James Webb, Webb actually used to be a Republican and served as the Secretary of Navy under President Reagan.

What does this all mean? It probably means that the doom and gloom theorists that say the business environment will change for the worse with Democrats in office are likely wrong. While the new members of Congress are unlikely to provide as many or any new tax benefits, they are similarly unlikely to roll the ones we have now back, choosing to instead to let them expire, that is if they are still in office. In regards to real estate, we do have to watch for some negative tax treatments, however, those are just as unlikely to be passed.

So what's the big deal about this new transition of power if it doesn't seem like things are going to change much? The big deal is that a vote swing like the one we saw in this Midterm election signifies that we, as citizens saw the country as being in a rut and when we see that, we demand and expect change and that's the way we vote. We punish the party in power and reward the one in the minority. This was done in 1994 with the Republican Contract with America and it happened in reverse this year.

So despite all the debate and conjecture, business is likely to continue as usual for most of us and in real estate, that's no different. Now that the political side show is over, let's get back to the real business at hand, of putting families in houses that they can call their homes.