If I'm being totally honest, Ben Shapiro is totally correct about "if you can't afford to live in New York City, live somewhere else".
One of the reasons these cities are so unaffordable is a century of attempts to make them affordable. They've driven down interest rates, they've given mortgages to anyone with a pulse, they made 30 year fixed mortgages the best option in the US (such mortgages don't exist in other countries and are subsidized), and they're on track to make 50 year mortgages an option. They've taken money from everyone else through taxes and inflation and injected it into the housing market. They've added grants and bursaries and tax rebates. In the US, the interest on your mortgage is tax deductible -- so mortgages are directly subsidized by the taxpayer. The result? House markets that aren't possible to live in.
Moreover, the culture that says "Everyone should be able to live on Manhattan Island" is broken. Sorry, not everyone can live in Hollywood, not everyone can live in Manhattan. That's life.
And here's the thing: People make arguments as to why it's important to keep communities intact. "Oh, I don't want to move away from my family" -- and they're not wrong, but it doesn't matter. You can't live here anymore, because you promised that spot to a dozen other people from around the world and a hundred people from around the country. The argument that everyone ought to move to these places, and that it's a moral good that they do, and that there's no opportunity anywhere but these few international cities, it's all contributing to the problem. Instead, people who want to keep living in their homes should be trying to make the argument that there are plenty of opportunties outside of their cities and people should go to those places instead.
In my own country of Canada, we have the same stupid ideology with respect to Toronto and Vancouver. And those two markets are retardedly expensive. "Oh, there's jobs there!" it doesn't matter! The houses in Toronto are a million, and in Vancouver they're two million!
With all this, the actual answer is multi-faceted, but simple.
1. Cut mortgage amortization to 15 years.
2. Stop insuring mortgages and force banks to take on the risks of lending
3. Don't allow mortgages to be packaged up in securities at all
4. Allow interest rates to rise if that's where they want to go
5. Don't allow people to claim mortgage interest on their taxes
6. Eliminate illegal immigration, reduce legal migration
7. Start amping up all the cities that aren't the top real estate markets in the world -- Maybe living in North Dakota isn't so bad?
8. Eliminate programs intended to help the working class pay for places they can't afford in areas like NYC or LA, let the rich sleep in the bed they made (with no local services unless they pay huge wages). Watch these areas become less attractive all of a sudden.
Do these things, and suddenly people can afford to live in the city of their grandparents. Otherwise sorry you have to leave because there's more people coming who want it more than you.
One of the reasons these cities are so unaffordable is a century of attempts to make them affordable. They've driven down interest rates, they've given mortgages to anyone with a pulse, they made 30 year fixed mortgages the best option in the US (such mortgages don't exist in other countries and are subsidized), and they're on track to make 50 year mortgages an option. They've taken money from everyone else through taxes and inflation and injected it into the housing market. They've added grants and bursaries and tax rebates. In the US, the interest on your mortgage is tax deductible -- so mortgages are directly subsidized by the taxpayer. The result? House markets that aren't possible to live in.
Moreover, the culture that says "Everyone should be able to live on Manhattan Island" is broken. Sorry, not everyone can live in Hollywood, not everyone can live in Manhattan. That's life.
And here's the thing: People make arguments as to why it's important to keep communities intact. "Oh, I don't want to move away from my family" -- and they're not wrong, but it doesn't matter. You can't live here anymore, because you promised that spot to a dozen other people from around the world and a hundred people from around the country. The argument that everyone ought to move to these places, and that it's a moral good that they do, and that there's no opportunity anywhere but these few international cities, it's all contributing to the problem. Instead, people who want to keep living in their homes should be trying to make the argument that there are plenty of opportunties outside of their cities and people should go to those places instead.
In my own country of Canada, we have the same stupid ideology with respect to Toronto and Vancouver. And those two markets are retardedly expensive. "Oh, there's jobs there!" it doesn't matter! The houses in Toronto are a million, and in Vancouver they're two million!
With all this, the actual answer is multi-faceted, but simple.
1. Cut mortgage amortization to 15 years.
2. Stop insuring mortgages and force banks to take on the risks of lending
3. Don't allow mortgages to be packaged up in securities at all
4. Allow interest rates to rise if that's where they want to go
5. Don't allow people to claim mortgage interest on their taxes
6. Eliminate illegal immigration, reduce legal migration
7. Start amping up all the cities that aren't the top real estate markets in the world -- Maybe living in North Dakota isn't so bad?
8. Eliminate programs intended to help the working class pay for places they can't afford in areas like NYC or LA, let the rich sleep in the bed they made (with no local services unless they pay huge wages). Watch these areas become less attractive all of a sudden.
Do these things, and suddenly people can afford to live in the city of their grandparents. Otherwise sorry you have to leave because there's more people coming who want it more than you.
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