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

No household can make more than 10% of their income from real estate speculation
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

So if your state gives you a $2000 deduction and you pay $500 in mortgage interest, then the government will give you a $500 tax credit each year so that your mortgage interest cost is now zero and you are paying only property taxes going forward
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)

This would prevent another housing bubble where people buy homes with too much debt relative to their incomes

6. Let's say there's an area near NYC where 100 apartments are for sale at $100,000 each

The average salary in that area is $60,000 per year (median)
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

7. When banks repossess houses due to nonpayment of mortgages or other reasons, they should have to sell those houses quickly or use them immediately as rentals (if they are suitable for rentals) before reselling them later on so that specul

8. There's been some research suggesting that high rent causes stress which leads to health problems later on in life or even shorter lifespans

Since we know this is true then reducing excessive rent increases would help reduce healthcare costs later on by reducing stress related illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes caused by stress over housing costs

AI James Altucher