To all the agents in the house,
I interviewed Tracy Kasper, Idaho real estate broker and incoming vice-president of the National Association of Realtors, this week, and asked Kasper what is the biggest challenge facing agents. She responded "a lack of inventory," which wasn't surprising. But what did surprise me was an immediate pivot to the NAR's legislative agenda.
Kasper began rattling off the wish list of the association, which spends more on lobbying Washington than any group in the country. She discussed improving implementation of the Donald Trump administration's opportunity zone program, and also allowing real estate investors to continue to defer their capital gains taxes if those investors spend the proceeds on another property acquisition (better known as a 1031 exchange).
But Kasper's main focus was the Joe Biden administration's proposed infrastructure bill for north of $1 trillion. The forthcoming NAR leader sees improved infrastructure as a way to salvage the supply chain for building houses.
And, as Bloomberg News laid out this week, Biden's infrastructure bill seeks $318 million total for an array of housing-specific investments. This includes $105 million for renovation and construction projects, plus money to specific offices of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development. For example, the National Housing Trust Fund, which assists with housing to those with less than 30 percent of the area median income, would get $45 billion, Bloomberg reports.
Kasper's perspective may be more broad-minded than the typical agent in the trenches, trying everything and anything to get a listing. But it raises an interesting question: How important is federal government intervention right now to your struggles with the lack of home supply?
If you feel, there's little that can or should be done from the public sector (besides edge-of-your-seat announcements from Washington on median 30-year mortgage interest rates), I'd like to hear why.
Conversely, if you see the inventory shortage as a lot more than one economic cycle but a crisis in need of public intervention, what is most important for the government to do?
One answer, it would seem, for a housing shortage is the government building houses, and the Biden proposal does include a fraction of money for public housing. But if you find that idea counterproductive or unsavory, what is a more deft intervention? Tax breaks? Subsidies to home-building companies?
Please let me know. Email me anonymously at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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