Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled the Harris-Walz administration’s housing policies at a campaign event on Friday. What are her priorities? Loosen controls on institutional investors and rental management platforms.
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During a campaign speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a housing agenda to help first-generation homebuyers, provide additional federal funding for local affordable housing projects and Crack down on corporate and institutional investors that drive up housing costs.
“The real estate market can be complicated, but, look, I’m not new to this problem,” she said. “…I know how to fight for people who are being exploited in the housing market, and I know what it means to own a home,” she added. “It’s more than just a financial transaction. It’s much more than that. It’s more than just a house. Owning a home and what it means – it’s a symbol of the pride that comes with hard work.
“It’s financial security,” she added. “It represents what you can do for your children.”
Harris called attention to the Preventing Rental Housing Cartels Algorithm Facilitation Act and the Stop Predatory Investment Act, two bills introduced to Congress in 2023 aimed at cracking down on institutional investors and landlords.
Senator Ron Wyden [D-OR] The Prevention of Algorithms Promoting Cartels in Rental Housing Bill was introduced in January 2023. Multiple measures of opportunity. Wyden called RealPage and Yardi the biggest examples of this problem, saying the two companies coordinated rent increases that were unaffordable for average Americans.
“In fact, Realpage claims that they raised rents for client landlords by 5% to 12% in every market in which they coordinated prices,” Wyden said in a summary of last year’s bill. “When market rental prices spike, more people will become homeless.”
Senator Sherrod Brown [D-OH] The Stop Predatory Investing Act was introduced in July 2023, prohibiting investors who purchase 50 or more new single-family rental homes from deducting interest or depreciation on those properties unless they sell one of the properties to a homebuyer or qualify non-profit organization. If they sell the property to a homebuyer or a qualified nonprofit organization, they will be able to deduct interest and depreciation in the year the property is sold.
Harris said the bills, if passed, would help “remove barriers and reduce red tape” for the millions of Americans who struggle to afford housing.
“By the end of my first term, we will end America’s housing shortage by building 3 million new homes and rentals that the middle class can afford, and we will do it together. We will do it together To this point,” she said. “We’re going to make sure these homes truly belong to working and middle-class Americans, not just investors.”
“Because, you know, some of the business owners – some of them bought dozens, if not hundreds, of houses and condos,” she added. “Then they turn them over and rent them out at extremely high prices, making it impossible for the average person to buy or even rent a home.”
“Some corporate landlords collude with each other to set rent prices artificially high, often using algorithms and pricing software to do this. It is anti-competitive and increases costs. I will fight for laws to combat these practices .
In addition to pushing for the passage of both bills, Harris also proposed $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-generation homebuyers and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. She said the two measures would open the door to home ownership for more than 1 million Americans.
“We can do it,” she said, earning applause from the crowd. “We can do this, and it’s all about helping more Americans experience the pride of homeownership and the financial security it represents and brings.”
Harris said that if elected president in November, she would inherit the Biden-Harris Innovation Fund and double it from $20 billion to $40 billion. The fund will provide local authorities with the capital they need to build more affordable homes and support housebuilders using “innovative approaches” to developments. The Innovation Fund also supports the reallocation of unused federal land for housing development.
“Harris will work with workers and the private sector to build the housing the country needs, both for rent and for purchase, and remove barriers that prevent new housing from being built, including at the state and local levels,” a campaign representative told ABC News on Friday. . “This will make rents and mortgages more affordable.”
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