Posted: Sunday, March 7, 2010 6:36 am

The housing sector was the economic engine that drove growth in Rutherford County until the bubble burst and the Great Recession began.

But some local community leaders have banded together to try to jumpstart the housing industry in Rutherford County with the SmartMove Campaign.

Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce and Destination Rutherford are taking action to support the key and lagging industry weakened by the economic recession.

“We’ve lost thousands of jobs in the homebuilding and construction industries since the recession began,” said Bill Jones, Chair of Destination Rutherford, a program of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce focused on economic development.

“This industry historically has been one of our strongest economic engines, with the additional jobs it creates rippling throughout every sector of the Rutherford County economy,” Jones continued, adding the purpose of Destination Rutherford is to lead efforts like SmartMove.

The Chamber and Destination Rutherford, in partnership with the Middle Tennessee Association of Realtors and Rutherford County Homebuilders Association, launched SmartMove today.

“The purpose of the campaign is to stimulate and remind those who are thinking about buying their first home or moving up into a new home to act now, especially while unprecedented tax credit programs are still available to ease their way into a new house,” Jones said.

SmartMove is an information campaign to alert and remind prospective homebuyers that home loan programs are available, as well as the federal Homebuyer Tax Credit.

The federal Homebuyer Tax Credit program requires a signed real estate contract no later than April 30 and closing on that contract no later than June 30.

The SmartMove program will culminate April 10 and 11 with a SmartMove Homes Weekend event led by MTAR, featuring consumer education seminars on many aspects of how to buy a home, a trade show and open houses at homes for sale.

The SmartMove program will use advertising and publicity to provide information about not only the federal Homebuyer Tax Credit Program but also additional loan programs that are available to homebuyers, including loan programs from the City of Murfreesboro, the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development and others.

Prospective buyers can visit rutherfordchamber.org/smartmove to begin the research process; additional sources of information include banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders and Realtors.

“We want to point people’s attention to the fact that there is a very strong federal tax credit program available to first-time homebuyers and existing homebuyers, offering $8,000 to those who are purchasing their very first home and $6,500 to those who want to move up in a home,” said Paul Latture, Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce president. “It’s very likely that a program this strong will never be offered again, and we want people to learn about it and take action before April 30 if they are even thinking about a new home right now.”

Latture said the local homebuilding and construction industries report losing thousands of jobs since the recession began.

“Losing any jobs, especially thousands, is significant for Rutherford County. We also have to take into account the many additional small- and medium-sized businesses that have either closed or downsized because their former customers in the homebuilding and construction industries don’t have jobs and don’t have the same money to spend with them.”

Latture said the mission of the Chamber and Destination Rutherford includes not only recruiting new jobs and new companies to the region, but also supporting and strengthening existing industries and jobs.

“When one industry in our community suffers, we all suffer, whether we realize it or not,” Latture added. “A strong economy and available jobs benefits every single man, woman and child living in Rutherford County, by providing paychecks to families and by contributing to the tax base, thereby reducing the need for additional taxes to pay for services.”