Trump’s missed opportunity on housing affordability |
It’s the first rule of economics. If you want lower prices, increase supply.
After years of restrictive land-use regulations, exclusionary zoning, wacky environmental policies, and rising construction costs, as well as tightened mortgage regulations after the 2008 financial crisis, states and the federal government have undermined access, supply, and affordability of housing.
Rather than dealing with these forces, President Donald Trump has apparently decided to adopt the preferred policy of socialists Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): blaming the landlords.
This week, Trump promised to ban large investors from buying single-family homes and asked Congress to codify his plan. Holding faceless, greedy “institutional investors,” entities with 100 properties or more, responsible for the housing crisis is a populist placebo. For years, I have seen progressives and the New Right ranting about Blackstone (sometimes, erroneously,