TIL

[timelets]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/08/headway/how-an-american-dream-of-housing-became-a-reality-in-sweden.html

While nearly every other industry has become more productive since 1968, productivity in home-building — the amount of work done by one worker in one hour, essentially — has declined by half. The country is barely building enough to maintain the status quo, which is some four million units short of need, according to Freddie Mac.

This is mostly due to regulations.

The barriers to building housing fast... weren’t technological, but institutional.

If I were the president...

Comments

[tijd]

"As president, I will work in partnership with industry to build the housing we need, both to rent and to buy. We will take down barriers and cut red tape, including at the state and local levels. (Applause.)
And by the end of my first term, we will end America’s housing shortage by building 3 million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class, and we will do that together. We will do that together. (Applause.)
And — and we will make sure those homes actually go to working- and middle-class Americans — (applause) — not just investors. Because, you know, some corporate landlords — some of them buy dozens, if not hundreds, of houses and apartments. Then they turn them around and rent them out at extremely high prices, and it can make it impossible, then, for regular people to be able to buy or even rent a home.
Some corporate landlords collude with each other to set artificially high rental prices, often using algorithms and price-fixing software to do it. It’s anticompetitive, and it drives up costs. I will fight for a law that cracks down on these practices. (Applause.)
We also know that as the price of housing has gone up, the size of down payments have gone up as well. Even if aspiring homeowners save for years, it often still is not enough.
So, in addition, while we work on the housing shortage, my administration will provide first-time homebuyers with $25,000
to help with the down payment on a new home. (Applause.)
We can do this. We can do this, all to help more Americans experience the pride of homeownership and the financial security that it represents and brings."
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/08/16/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-at-a-campaign-event-in-raleigh-nc/

[timelets]

Unfortunately, these proposals don't address the over-regulation problem at all.

[tijd]

"We will take down barriers and cut red tape"

Cut Red Tape and Needless Bureaucracy. These plans will build on the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to cut red tape and enable more home building to bring down housing costs—which have advanced record levels of new home construction. Pushing this forward also means streamlining permitting processes and reviews, including for transit-oriented and conversion development, so builders can get homes on the market sooner and bring down costs.
https://mailchi.mp/press.kamalaharris.com/vice-president-harris-lays-out-agenda-to-lower-costs-for-american-families

[timelets]

ok. this is better.