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49 Ways to Increase U.S. Home Ownership

 Download PDF of the 49 Ways to Increase U.S. Home Ownership – John Wake (August, 2024 version) Below, “homes” refers to single-family homes and condos, and “landlords” refers to landlords of those homes. Stop ALL government incentives (taxes, laws, policies, etc.) to own homes that aren’t incentives for owners who live in their homes The…

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9 Free Ways to Increase Arizona Home Ownership

 What Arizona can do to help stabilize house prices, which would increase Arizona home ownership, family wealth, and economic growth, all for FREE. It’s true that getting building permits is a huge pain in the neck and the process can be improved, but it’s a myth that zoning is what caused house prices to skyrocket during Covid. More supply would be great but, in fact, the U.S. has never had more housing per person. Whenever you read that the U.S. housing supply is short X million homes, check their math. They don’t look at the number of homes and the number of people. Instead, they use convoluted calculations based on…

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76 Secrets of U.S. Home Ownership – Conclusion

 Let’s make home ownership boring again.  Buying a house for your family should not be a speculative investment, it should stabilize your family. It should be a way to buy and own a house for your family to live in for many years to come. Mortgages and the rest of the system should be designed as much as possible to make buying a house for your family a sure thing again instead of a gamble if you happen to buy in the wrong year. #1 – Get rid of ALL possible government incentives (taxes, laws, policies, etc.) to own single-family homes and condos that aren’t incentives for people to own…

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6 Tax Breaks Landlords Get that You Don’t

 [Originally published on my substack in June, 2021.] If the U.S. government stops distorting the housing market, we’ll increase home ownership, economic growth, economic equality, and stable family wealth creation. We should at least get rid of these tax breaks for landlords of single-family houses and condos. How many of these landlord tax breaks did…

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Real USA Home Prices Flat for 1 Year & 19% Above 2006 Peak

 Home Prices and Incomes Changes in per capita income is probably the second most important determinant of changes in home prices. But where mortgage rates are uniform nationally, changes in per capita income can vary a lot from metro to metro. From 1990, nominal per capita income was up nearly 5x in San Francisco but up only 3x in Cleveland. The New Subprime = High Debt-to-Income One Zoning Change that WILL Make Housing More Affordable Here’s a zoning change that would make homes more affordable, permanently, for free. Zone areas of single-family homes for owner-occupants only. No rentals allowed. Many years ago, I couldn’t figure out why homes in a…

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Since February is Black History Month here are 12 “Secrets” of U.S. Black Home Ownership

 Here are 12 facts about U.S. Black Home Ownership that are rarely talked about. They’re from my 76 Secrets of U.S. Home Ownership project. Black Home Ownership #3 – For Black Home Ownership, “Affordable” Housing Policies Have Been Worse Than Jim Crow #18 – FHA was Extremely Racist #19 – Worse Than Redlining #20 – From 1940 to 1970 the Black Home Ownership Rate Increased More in the South than the North #21 – Redlining was a National Policy to Segregate the North #22 – The National Association of Realtors Opposed the 1968 Fair Housing Act #23 – The 1968 Fair Housing Act had Very Weak Enforcement #24 – The Same 1968 FHA Program that Devastated Many Black…

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Solution #2 – Redesign U.S. Mortgages to Maximize Home Ownership Instead of Home Sales

 – Not Easy But Effective Redesign U.S. mortgages to maximize the free-and-clear home ownership rate over the long run instead of maximizing home sales over the short run. See Secret #31. Redesign U.S. mortgages to protect home owners over the long run, not just banks and mortgage lenders.  The focus of U.S. mortgage policy is on maximizing home sales in the short term without looking at the long-term effects of those policies on home ownership rates. U.S. mortgage policy has been very shortsighted and the home ownership rate is about the same as it was in 1970.  Some mortgage designs can lead to higher home sales and higher home ownership…

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3 Solutions – U.S. Home Ownership

 #1 – TAXES. Have “One Tax Code for Homes” for all single-family homes and condos – Eliminate all landlords-only tax breaks. Easy partial solution. More generally, get rid of ALL possible government incentives (taxes, mortgage programs, laws, policies, etc.) to own single-family homes and condos that aren’t incentives for people to own those homes as their primary residences. #2 – MORTGAGES. Redesign U.S. mortgages to maximize home ownership over the long term instead of maximizing home sales over the short term. Complex partial solution. #3 – HOMES. Greatly expand non-profit, limited-profit, cooperative and government-owned social housing development. Long-term partial solution. House prices will always be prone to booms and busts…

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Secret #76 – A Huge Property Tax Loophole for Land Speculators

 In a lot of places, including in metro Phoenix, property tax rates on land are often based on the land’s current use value instead of its current market value.  A piece of land right outside of town might be worth a ton to developers because of its value for building houses but the property tax rate the land owner actually pays may be far, far less than the rate home owners in the area pay because of a crazy property tax loophole for land owners.  The property taxes in these places are not based on the land’s fair market value – like it is for home owners – but on…

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Secret #75 – Many YIMBYs are Really NIMBYs

 They Don’t Want ANY New Houses Built Beyond Their Urban Growth Boundaries or in Their Greenbelts For example, Portland, Oregon. Being surrounded by close-in farmland and forest is more important to the people of Portland and other cities with urban growth boundaries and greenbelts than having more housing and less expensive housing. It’s their choice. The people of Portland and many other cities chose farmland over more houses and less expensive houses. 76 Secrets of U.S. Home Ownership – Table of Contents

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Secret #74 – 6-Months of Inventory of Houses for Sale is a Lot More Than It Used to Be

 With the internet and electronic signatures, the mechanics of the home buying process are far faster than during the 1980s real estate boom or during the 2000s real estate boom. That increased speed amplified the increases in demand that came from the lower mortgage rates and the changes in demand caused by COVID. That increased speed is equivalent, in a way, to having more buyers because it becomes more likely a house will get multiple offers when it first hits the market.  In addition, when it’s so easy to make offers, potential buyers make more offers on more houses before they get discouraged and stop making offers.  Increased speed means…

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Secret #72 – Most Developers Today Don’t Want to Build Inexpensive Houses

 They Want to Build More Profitable Houses Developers want to build the most expensive houses they can sell on the limited amount of land they own because, today, they make more money that way. If developers build less expensive houses on the land they own, they can’t build more expensive, more profitable houses on that land. They have to choose one or the other. They will tend to build more expensive houses until they can’t sell them.  They can’t build more land. That land constraint changes the economics completely. It’s not like most every other product.  If you build more cars that are less expensive, you can also build more…

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Secret #71 – Congress Almost Prevented 500,000 Foreclosures but the Financial Industry Stopped Them

 President Obama’s Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in 2009, Christina Romer, said in 2012, “Ultimately, we didn’t push for it as much as perhaps we should have… And so it’s something I wish we could do now. Again, the financial industry fights it like crazy.” A recent study estimated that if the legislation had passed, roughly 500,000 fewer U.S. homes would have been foreclosed on during the Great Recession. This legislation was the “cramdown” legislation which would have allowed bankruptcy judges to lower the amount of money bankrupt people owe on their primary homes to the fair market value of their homes at the time of the bankruptcy.…

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Secret #70 – What You Can Do to Increase Home Ownership

 The lobbying efforts of the National Association of Realtors are a major force behind U.S. landlord tax breaks on single-family houses and condos, tax breaks that help keep the U.S. home ownership rate unusually low. If you want to increase U.S. home ownership and, especially, increase U.S. free-and-clear home ownership, before you to talk to your local, state and national politicians, you can start by calling, emailing or texting your favorite local Realtor and asking them why the National Association of Realtors fights so hard for landlord tax breaks that, mathematically, MUST lower the home ownership rate for people like you. (They may say it’s to provide housing to renters…

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