Biden's incentive for homeownership doesn't go far enough: Don Peebles
'The solution has to come from the private sector,' Don Peebles says
President-elect Joe Biden’s incentive for homeownership doesn’t go far enough, Peebles Corporation CEO Don Peebles argued on Tuesday.
Peebles also told “Morning’s with Maria” on Tuesday that the solution to the problem of helping Americans become homeowners should come from the private sector.
Biden noted on his website that “far too many Americans lack access to affordable and quality housing” and said there is a “shortage of available, affordable housing units for low-income individuals” across the country.
Biden said he plans to “invest $640 billion over 10 years so every American has access to housing that is affordable, stable, safe and healthy, accessible, energy-efficient and resilient, and located near good schools and with a reasonable commute to their jobs.”
Some of the points in his plan include ending “unfair practices in the housing market” and “providing financial assistance to help hard-working Americans buy or rent safe, quality housing, including down payment assistance through a refundable and advanceable tax credit and fully funding federal rental assistance.”
On Tuesday, Peebles pointed to Biden’s plan to help families buy their first homes through a tax credit of up to $15,000.
“Building off of a temporary tax credit expanded as part of the Recovery Act, this tax credit will be permanent and advanceable, meaning that homebuyers receive the tax credit when they make the purchase instead of waiting to receive the assistance when they file taxes the following year,” according to Biden’s website.
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“President-elect Biden’s incentive for homeownership is a nice gesture, but it’s $15,000 dollars and the average cost of a home in the United States is $350,000 dollars,” Peebles said. “So it’s some money, but it’s really not going to help people who really can’t afford down payments.”
“It’s going to help people who actually can afford it and maybe encourage them a little bit more,” he continued, adding that he thinks “the solution has to come from the private sector.”
He explained that “one of the ways to do it is to use tax policy and also land-use policies in these cities to reduce the cost of housing so that it becomes more affordable.”
Peebles stressed that “that’s a private-sector solution.”
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He went on to explain that another solution is getting “more people working so that they have higher incomes” and therefore, more people “are capable of buying.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than just throwing a relatively small amount towards individuals and burdening the entire country with these additional costs,” Peebles added.
“There are some other solutions though that the president-elect and these mayors and governors around the country in these high-cost states can do.”
Host Maria Bartiromo asked Peebles on Tuesday what he believes would impact real estate “in terms of policy coming out of this potential new administration.”
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“I think, tax policy incentivizing new construction, new development for rent properties and also subsidies that would encourage developers to expand the number of units that they provide for workforce housing, which I think is our biggest challenge in terms of urban cities around the country,” he responded.