Posted on 11/16/2025 2:01:14 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
We need a Marshall Plan for housing, a collection of broad initiatives to make homes more affordable and put the American dream back on track
Homeownership has long been part of the American dream, but that dream has been deferred.
Households in their 30s have an ownership rate of just 42% — more than 20 points lower than the national average.
The median age of all home buyers is a record-breaking 59, and the age of a first-time buyer is 40 — up from 29 in 1981.
As a solution, the Trump administration is floating a 50-year mortgage.
Though I disagree with that specific idea, I am heartened that they are brainstorming ways to tackle the problem.
We need a Marshall Plan for housing, a collection of broad initiatives to make homes more affordable and put the dream back on track.
The federal government can use its bully pulpit to get changes to red tape and regulations that are holding back building, and encourage policies that would increase housing and decrease costs.
To start, the White House and Fannie Mae should instead promote shorter, 20-year mortgages.
As Ed Pinto of the American Enterprise Institute has argued, a 20-year loan can be paid off "when the 30-year-term loan leaves most homeowners saddled with another decade or more of mortgage payments, the cash flow freed up from a paid-off shorter-term loan is available to fund a child’s post-secondary-education needs and later turbocharge one’s own retirement."
The 20-year loan could be incentivized with a first-time buyer tax credit.
The decline in homeownership is a problem that must be addressed federally and locally.
This would be especially important today when the vast majority of taxpayers no longer itemize their tax returns — which means they cannot avail themselves of the deduction for mortgage interest.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Right. But they constitute a regiment in the Stalinist armies of America
Just lower the amount you have to put down from 20% to 10%… it really takes two people to afford a home…..I bought a house in Colorado in 1980….
65,000 and taxes 600$….twenty years later taxes were 650$…then the Californians took over the state….moved to Florida…
Why is that? There is a difference between loaning a little money to a bank and borrowing a lot of money from a bank.
Charging interest on a loan. Muslims are religiously against ‘ usury’ as a greedy Jew thing
Yes
I’d be interested in what you come up. My the first home we brought was a 25+ year old tri-level with just over 1700 sq. Ft.,on an acre in Danville (VA) City limits, back in the late 90s. We were expecting our first child, and had three bedrooms, with two full baths. I think we paid $96k for it.
Typo. My father bought his house in 1960 and still lives there.
In the early 2000’s one of the food retailers estimated that there were 10 million more people in Britain than official.
Sewage volumes could also estimate extra population, since most of the illegals would be in areas attached to the sewer system.
But they don’t release these estimates, for obvious reasons.
Really. We never went out to restaurants. Never had expensive vacations. You wouldn’t believe all the young males and females spending a mint on Scottsdale bachelor and bachelorette party vacations or golf trips. I’ve run into you men playing golf who are snowbirds, have one place in Phoenix for the winter, another place in Wisconsin for the summer. Best golf equipment and clothes. I am convinced that the young people complaining about unaffordability have multi colored hair, define themselves as autistic or neurodivergent, have no skills, but think they should be able to buy a big new house working at Starbucks. I remind them that the price of gas was $1.11 in 1981, fell to $1.07 by 1993, then to 90 cents per gallon , when the federal budget got balanced and the era of big government was over. Socialist countries like Iran or Venezuela resort to printing money to support runaway spending, which results in hyperinflation and shortages. As the USA slouches towards 1970s Gomorrah, we get the hyperinflation that came with the 1977 dual mandate law signed by Jimmy Carter. The economy isn’t growing? Unemployment rate is too high? Just print more money! In the 1970 s, liberals explained away their failures by claiming 9% unemployment rate is “ full employment”, that anything below an 8% unemployment rate causes runaway inflation. The Fed still is mired in that pseudo intellectual groupthink that growth and low employment are bad and the job of the Fed is to allow prices to rise when the economy is bad, then to keep wages from rising when the economy is good....so the Fed causes crashes and recessions every ten years or so, failing in their effort to control demand in the economy by manipulating interest rates, so the middle class and working poor suffer layoffs, but then over time, prices go up faster than iwages...and oeople fall even further behind to eventually abandon free markets as unfair and unstable and look to socialist big government messiahs who promise voters the moon of easy solutions
<<CAPITAL GAINS IS NOT THE PROBLEM.
It sure as hell is. Been in my home 35 years. Hubs and I bought in 1990 for $106,000. Property values increased so my house is now worth $550,000. My husband died 3 years ago. That now makes me “Single” under the capital gains rule. That means I immediately incur a tax liability of nearly $40,000. How the hell is that fair, just because I had the misfortune to become a widow 3 years ago? This house is my only major asset. I’ve joined the ranks of the elderly who live in fear that the money will run out before I die. What do you suppose the chances are of buying a downsized home for half the cost of my old 1938 bungalow?
“This housing crisis is going to take care of itself. Let’s get the illegals out of our low income housing. Then tell the hedge fund guys to stop buying up all of the homes.”
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You’re probably right that the increasingly worldwide housing crisis will be solved when Boomers shuffle offstage and their properties get divided up among family.
When you figure out how to stop the hedge fund people and REIT investors from investing to make a profit, you should let us know. Remember, as Mitt and Citizens United reminded us, corporations (hedge funds) are people too....
“No, we don’t. We just need to curb immigration - illegal and legal - and give America a chance to absorb the immigrants we already have here. And we need to abolish property tax. Do both and you solve the housing affordability issue.”
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We do need to curb immigration, but that will also have an adverse economic impact on us because we aren’t reproducing enough to replace ourselves. If you abolish property taxes, do you think the services most people get from the government will suddenly not cost anything?
Sorry to hear about the loss of your husband. If you had sold within 2 years of his death you would have been eligible for the $500K exclusion. However, the details you have given seem unlikely you would need that exclusion. After living in the home for 35 years, I would suspect many improvements have been made that would add to the original cost basis. Also, the cost basis of the home would increase by 50% at the time of your husbands death. I would consult a tax professional to know where you stand.
This man bought a 11,000sq/ft apartment in NYC for just $36,000 in 1973.
$36,000 NYC Apartment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaWwkOl331k
A guy named Michael Dell bought the same sized apartment for a mere $100 million in 2014....
This guy Ken Griffin bought one in NYC in 2019 for $238 million for just 23,000sq/ft....
https://www.businessinsider.com/ken-griffin-most-expensive-home-ever-sold-us-nyc-penthouse-2019-1
nobody but nobody worried about us...especially the govt...infact they are crushing our futures with their taxes,especially property taxes..
“Oh, and let’s not forget the granite countertops, stainless steel appliances”
I vastly prefer the modern versions of Formica and I hate abhor stainless steel.. way too screaming and brassy. I like white.
They way I read California law is if you die and your heirs sell the house right away, they owe no tax because of the step up. If one of your heirs moves in within a year and they keep the reduced property tax rate according to prop 19, they also keep the long term capital gains liability.
“All bills pushes ownership out of reach.”
Homeownership is rebounding, particularly among younger adults
From 2016 to 2022, the homeownership rate grew more for people under 35 than any other age group.
https://usafacts.org/articles/homeownership-is-rebounding-particularly-among-younger-adults/
“Home mortgages should be no more than +0.5% above the rate on savings.”
Nope.
Mortgages are long term.
“I don’t anyone who, given a choice, would want a 50 yr. mortgage. That’s crazy.”
The person that qualifies for the 50 but not for a 30 on the house he really wants.
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