If you want to use homeownership as a wealth-building tool, you need to:
A) build new houses, and
B) help low-income people to buy those houses cheaply.
That is the only way it works.
A) build new houses, and
B) help low-income people to buy those houses cheaply.
That is the only way it works.
We sort of did this once, with the G.I. Bill and the construction of the suburbs.
Now, people need to live more densely. So an Elizabeth Warren style plan, of density incentives combined with down payment assistance, is our best bet.
Now, people need to live more densely. So an Elizabeth Warren style plan, of density incentives combined with down payment assistance, is our best bet.
Conor Sen and I suggested this type of policy in a joint post: bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
The reason people need to live more densely now is that the decline of labor-intensive manufacturing and the rise of knowledge industries has led to a decline in opportunity in small towns and far-flung exurbs.
Read "The New Geography of Jobs":
amazon.com/New-Geography-…
Read "The New Geography of Jobs":
amazon.com/New-Geography-…
Housing-based wealth building needs to focus on *new* houses, not on bidding up the prices of existing houses.
Otherwise it just puts taxpayer money in rich people's pockets without actually making low-income people better off.
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Otherwise it just puts taxpayer money in rich people's pockets without actually making low-income people better off.
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