Article

Homebuilders can't build fast enough

First five word are fine, shame about all the rest.

"What really needs to happen is, can we find a tax incentive to unleash some of the inventory held by mom-and-pop real estate investors?" National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun

That is not new housing. Every housing unit that shifts over from rent to owner-occupied forces a, very marginally less than one, household from the renting to the owning market.

"If we can get even just 1% of inventory onto the market through tax incentives, essentially a reduction in capital gains tax," Yun said, "...that will spur more supply immediately, and that will help the housing market and the broader economy."

I can't even imagine why he thinks an extra transaction that fucks over on average poorer person would help the broader economy.

"The big change is ..... if the Fed decides to stop raising interest rates. Because one of the reasons for the low supply is that homeowners do not want to trade away their low interest rate for a much higher interest rate as they're making their residential move," Yun said.

Homeowners deciding not to sell their current home due to high interest rates implies that they were just going to turn around and buy another home, which implies no net impact on the availability of homes for people entering the market.

TL;DR, no Dr Yun, transactions for their own sake will not help the economy even if your constituents get to skim 6% off the top of each transaction. This bullshit is not economics.