Politics & Power Quote by Randy Neugebauer

“Strong and sound” is the kind of calming adjective pair politicians reach for when the numbers are wobbling but the narrative can’t. Neugebauer’s line is doing two jobs at once: conceding a visible slowdown (“cooled,” “more typical levels”) while preemptively framing it as healthy normalization, not a warning flare. The rhetorical move is subtle triage. By calling the current pace “typical,” he implies the previous surge was exceptional but not pathological. Nothing to see here, just a market catching its breath.

The second sentence reveals the real intent: tie homeownership to national prosperity so tightly that questioning the housing boom starts to sound like questioning economic growth itself. It’s not merely a defense of a sector; it’s a political shield. If housing equals growth, then policies that feed housing (credit expansion, tax advantages, lighter regulation) become synonymous with patriotism and good stewardship. The phrase “we are experiencing today” anchors the claim to the present tense of voter satisfaction: whatever feels good right now must be structurally sound.

Subtext: this is reassurance aimed at an anxious audience - homeowners watching equity, builders watching demand, lenders watching risk, and lawmakers watching headlines. It also carries a quiet warning to regulators and critics: don’t overreact, don’t tighten, don’t puncture confidence. In the mid-2000s political climate, “expansion of homeownership” was more than a social ideal; it was a bipartisan growth strategy. Neugebauer is defending that strategy by redefining cooling as stability, and stability as proof the system deserves to keep running.