Here’s a letter to Newsweek:
Editor:
Reporting on Kamala Harris’s first solo t.v. interview you uncritically write that “she will also work on the ‘housing supply shortage’ by providing first-time homebuyers a $25,000 downpayment assistance to ensure the American dream is no longer ‘elusive’ for young citizens” (“Kamala Harris’ First Solo TV Interview Key Takeaways,” Sept. 13).
Harris’s proposed “$25,000 downpayment assistance” will only further subsidize housing demand; it will do absolutely nothing to relieve the “housing supply shortage.” To achieve the latter requires roll-backs of zoning and other land-use restrictions, elimination of rent-controls, and reductions of tariffs that artificially raise the prices of construction materials.
Giving people more of other people’s money to spend on housing will only raise the prices of the existing stock of housing without making more housing available. America’s housing problem isn’t inadequate demand; it’s government-engineered inadequate supply – a problem the severity of which will not be lessened by Harris’s scheme.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
