Rental Nation: Depriving Americans of Home Ownership Could Be a Good Thing, Economist Says
Penny Starr 20 Jun 2021
The American dream of home ownership should be replaced by corporate investors snapping up houses and turning them into rentals, one economist is proposing.
Karl W. Smith, an adjunct scholar with the Tax Foundation and Bloomberg columnist, believes that scenario could be positive, even if he doesn’t address the fact home ownership is the main way for the middle class to build wealth.
Smith argues “a nation of renters is not something to fear. In fact, it’s the opposite.”
Smith lays out his argument, including citing the troubling statistic that the 64.3 percent of Americans who owned home in 2016 is the lowest percentage since the U.S. Census Bureau starting keeping track of that data in 1984.
And Smith gave a nod to former President Donald Trump, saying homeownership rebounded during his tenure to 66 percent, “but that trend is likely to be arrested by a housing market that is desperately short on supply and seeing month-over-month price increases greater than they were in the frenzied market of 2006.”
Smith argues that single family homes have historically been an “extremely illiquid asset.”
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/20/rental-nation-depriving-americans-home-ownership-could-good-thing-economist-says/
