Vice President Kamala Harris has rolled out several initiatives as part of her housing plan. She wants to incentivize builders to create 3 million units of affordable housing and develop a $25,000 housing credit for first-time homebuyers. Harris’s housing goals have been widely dissected by the media, showing that the nationwide housing problem is top of mind for many people.
Harris believes that former president Trump has it all wrong when it comes to solving the housing crunch. In her Aug. 16,2024, political rally, she stated, “If his Project 2025 agenda is put into effect, it will add around $1,200 a year to the typical American mortgage. He’s got it backward. We should be doing everything we can to make it more affordable to buy a home, not less.”
I appreciate trying to help people buy a house but won’t handing out money only exacerbate the problem? Demand is already high and that really hasn’t helped increase supply.
She’s only proposing to hand out money to first time home buyers. Since most people will not get this free money, it shouldn’t affect pricing much or at all.
Getting more people into the housing market in the first place is the hard part. Once you already have a home, the value typically follows the market, so you’re still good. I would have a hard time buying my current house, because the value has gone up so much. The down payment and loan would both be horrendous. However I can easily buy a similar one now, because my home value has gone up as much as theirs.
Even if it did affect pricing, it will still work. When you get a loan, the bank would rather see you with $25k down on a $200k house than zero down on a $175k house. In the former case, you have something to lose, and they have a margin to profit, even if the deal goes wrong. Even if all starter homes raised prices by that amount, it should be easier for first time buyers because they have a bigger down payment.
Your skipping the first part about inventiving increasing supply. (The government building them themselves would be labeled communism and faught against tooth and nail, so the government has to lose money by paying private companies more to get the same product, still with which they will charge more money.).
3 millions homes, average home in America is 2.5 person per household ~ 7.5million new residencies.
Hope would be to add a little over 2% more homes than would be build otherwise which isn’t a fuck ton, but it should make it so supply increases over the current “standard” increase.
Now an additional 10% would be great, until we realize the ramifications on land and maintenance we would be taken up, and there could end up being more houses being abandoned and left to be bulldozed eventually if costs ever permit, but it places more distance between people’s houses and stores, which increases transit times and energy use.
I got tired of the fuckcars sub and blocked it eventually, but they can tell you why it would be beneficial to keep these homes close together and near commodities. Creates a healthier society in general. (More walking/biking, public transport, public parks, community, which all entisis social skills and less pollution/environmental impacts). They are great people in that sub, just got tired of the same old conversation
None of this shit will help.
The only thing that will change the current dynamic is banning home purchases as investment vehicles.
The whole reason the home market is in the toilet is because hedge funds and other investment institutions are allowed to buy up entire neighborhoods to prop up home prices.
Stop investing and home prices go back to normal. Nothing else matters.
That’s part of what I’m thinking, short supply is only one dimension of the problem, there is still corporate ownership of homes, low density/single family homes zoning, and limited commercial space. I’m not against the money, I won’t be eligible but I fear we will just have the same situation as higher education, ever more expensive for not fucking reason.