A North Carolina housing professional with 24 years in the industry critiques the Harris-Walz campaign's housing plan. He argues that building 3 million units through federal zoning control erases local market knowledge, rent control shrinks the rental supply, and $25,000 down-payment assistance drives up prices instead of solving affordability.
The Kamala Harris, Tim Walz campaign is unveiling a housing plan today. As a housing expert, someone who's been in the business for 24 years, owns my own firm, and has been heavily involved in policy issues at all levels of government, I felt obligated to bring y'all some viewpoint on what's going to be rolled out, especially since I seriously doubt that the National Association of Realtors is going to make commentary on a presidential campaign's policy. The first item you're going to see talked about is a wonderful plan to call for the construction of 3 million new housing units. Now that does sound good, and I agree that it's good to have conversation about the fact that our supply is the problem, not so much demand. However, couched in that wonderful little headline is a real problem, friends, because their goal is to have the federal government take over zoning. Zoning should only be under local control. Cabarrus County, North Carolina, where I am, is wildly different than Mecklenburg County right next door. And frankly, we don't have the foggiest idea what's best for Syracuse, New York, or Kansas City, Missouri, or even Kansas City, Kansas. There is no universal housing market. There is no universal housing plan. If the federal government gets to take over zoning, friends, here's what that looks like. That means that you may have a parcel of land that you would like to develop, and the federal government says yes or no as to what you can do. I don't like giving the federal government any control when this country was built to make sure that every zip code could have its own personality and its own leadership. So yes, we need new housing, but not at expense of local controls. The second thing being proposed is, of course, rent control. And that sounds good if you're in a rental and you feel like you're paying too much. Friends, the way that you solve the high cost of rent is to add more rental units, but not rental units by hedge funds, which has been the plan for the last few years. What we need are more mom-and-pop investors that are able to make local decisions about zoning and local decisions about their land so they can provide more units. When you put in rent controls, that caps what I as a landlord can charge for rent. That sounds okay if you're the consumer, but friends, it's been tried in all kinds of markets, all kinds of cities, and it does not work. Because as an investor, I'm not going to put my money into something where I can't control the market conditions. I mean, I can never control market conditions, but I can't respond to market conditions. Pay attention, every city that has rent controls loses rental units. What happens when you lose units? That's right, you have another supply issue. This is not good. It is terrible. And by the way, if you're a tenant, you can get trapped in your unit. Because let's just say you and your family have a large rent-controlled unit, and then those wonderful children grow up and move away. I feel ya. Well, now you're in this giant unit, but you can't afford to move because you're trapped by your low rental cost. Meanwhile, a young family down the hall wants to move into your larger unit, but they can't because they're trapped too, and they're just out of space. It is not a good way to control the market. Rent controls are bad. What we should have instead are better local zoning decisions. Now, the third thing in this plan is that there's going to be an offer of free money, down payment assistance, help those first-time buyers get in a house. I love down payment assistance, especially when it's done by tax credits, when it's done by bond money approved by voters. Y'all, if the federal government wants to hand people money for buying houses, that's what causes inflation. How is it going to be that we can get y'all educated on this. Every time the government starts printing money, as young people say, it goes brrr. When the Fed prints money, that causes inflation. And so when you add $25,000 in free money to a house, you just drove the cost up by $25,000. I just wish that when any political person rolls out a housing plan, they talk to some of us in housing first. Friends, these decisions might sound big picture. You might not be interested in housing policy, but what you need to know is that these decisions will impact you, your decisions, and your pocketbook. So vote accordingly.
