Affordable housing
1. Put a cap on housing costs
2. Make it illegal to raise rents more than inflation plus 1% per year
3. Put a cap on income distribution from housing
For example, if you own a house worth $100,000 and you rent it out for $2000/month, then your income is capped at $20000 (10% of the rental income)
This prevents speculation and encourages people to actually live in the houses they own instead of treating them as assets to flip
4. The government should give everyone a mortgage interest credit equal to their local state/city tax deduction for home ownership
This will encourage home ownership and prevent people from being priced out of buying homes
5. Limit the size of mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy so that no household can take on debt larger than four times their income (this rule would not apply to first time buyers)
6. Let's say there's an area near NYC where 100 apartments are for sale at $100,000 each
In order for those apartments to be affordable for locals, the government should offer low-interest loans to anyone who wants to build an apartment building nearby so long as the apartments are within reach of locals' salaries (say, between $45-60K per year)
If possible, this should be done through public-private partnerships rather than direct government spending because it will create jobs in construction and real estate as well as reduce future rent costs for locals who move into these new affordable housing units when they are built
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