Housing

US Home Sales Dip Again as Mortgage Rates Hit 6.69%

Is this crisis caused by bad policy holding back supply or a broken system rigged against the young?

Published 2 hours ago

US Home Sales Dip Again as Mortgage Rates Hit 6.69%

Story

Above: Signage outside a new home under construction in Cyprus, Texas, on Aug. 3. Image credit: Mark Felix/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Spin

Democratic narrative

The housing crisis is about a broken retirement system that forces home prices to keep rising so older Americans can cash out. Zoning and land-use rules have strangled housing markets for decades, and young people are right to feel locked out. Capitalism can fix this, but only if policymakers actually commit to real deregulation instead of protecting incumbent homeowners.

Slow Boring The New York Times

Republican narrative

Restricting institutional investors from buying homes is bad economics, and blaming elderly owners won't fix that. Large institutional owners hold less than 1% of single-family homes, so forcing them out won't build a single new unit. On top of zoning red tape, the real culprit is government-created scarcity through zoning rules, permitting delays and impact fees — fix those, and prices actually fall.

Aei National Review