Jones St. varmints launching “bipartisan” assault on free market
Any time you hear the word “bipartisan” being bandied about casually, raise those defenses. QUICK.
Get a load of SB 317 being pushed by Republicans Tim Moffitt and Paul Newton and Democrat Paul Lowe:
[…] A bill sponsored by both leading Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly aims to make homes more affordable by reducing regulations on homebuilders who agree to sell a percentage of their properties below market value. Senate Bill 317 would incentivize “workforce housing developments” by making them exempt from most local government zoning laws. The idea is to reduce the costs of building new homes in exchange for less onerous regulations from local governments.[…]
If the regulations can be so flippantly dismissed, perhaps they’re actually not all that important? Government regulations were never meant to be punitive or used as leverage against taxpayers.
MORE:
[…] The bill’s wording is a bit tricky, but basically, the system goes like this. Developers building on at least 10 acres can get access to the regulation exemption if they agree to sell at least 20% of their homes at a reduced price. Of those 20%, half of them must be priced so that somebody making 80% of the area median income can afford a mortgage for it. This number will vary depending on where you are, but statewide that’s roughly $48,000 per year in North Carolina. That would mean the home price is somewhere around $150,000.
The other half of the “workforce homes” can be sold at a price affordable to people making the area median income, or around $60,000 statewide. That home price would be closer to $200,000. The remaining 80% of the homes in the development can be sold at any price.[…]
Show off hands. How many people are comfortable with corrupt politicians in Raleigh dictating what price we can and cannot sell stuff for?
Prices get dictated by how well stuff is selling. If sales slow, prices drop. If sales are hot, they stay stable or climb. Demand, demand, demand.
Playing with the price of new homes screws up home values throughout the community. If you try to sell your house, your realtors and realtors for buyers will seek comps — that is, pricing on houses near you. Your asking price, or the buyer’s bid will likely be based on the comp prices or an average of the comp prices. If weasels in Raleigh artificially deflate new housing prices in your community, it can negatively affect your home value.
Individual choices go into home prices and local costs-of-living. Not everyone has a divine right to live on Bald Head Island or Figure Eight or Weddington or St. James. Nor in Beverly Hills nor Potomac, MD, nor Greenwich, Connecticut nor Chatauqua, NY nor The Hamptons. Individual choices set the standard in those places. Lots of wealthy people move there and build houses to their desired standard of living? The cost of living goes up there. (You can see that phenomenon in action in and around Oak Island in Brunswick County. )
Home prices are also inflated thanks to mischief in other areas perpetrated by politicians. They’re also inflated thanks to fascist psychos on local planning boards. An easy solution to both of those? Pay close attention to what state and local officials are up to. If they get out of hand, change them out. (We change oil, change out air filters, and underwear. Why not politicians?)
This is stupid, destructive legislation that needs to go away. Republicans — who allegedly stand for the free market — should know better.
This is part of the Obama scheme to bust zoning laws, now pursued by Biden. It is anti-middle class and an effort to destroy the suburbs. Far left RINOs like Newton and Moffitt need primaries.
Newton is a former exec of very “woke” utility monopoly Duke Energy, so this is absolutely no suprise for him. Duke Energy is eaten up with the far left ESG dogma. Left wing Newton was also a big player in pushing North Carolina’s despicable Green New Deal, HB951 which has already given consumers a double digit electric rate increase, which will be the first of many. Newton is a counterfeit conservative just like phony Phil Berger.
NEVER NEWTON. NEVER MOFFITT
NC Republican legislators are so infatuated with marijuana and gambling that they have lost the ability to think sensibly on other issues. Expect more nonsense from the GOP legislature down the road. They have become addicted to bad ideas.
So what Zoning laws can they skip, a doublewide home next to a waterfront mansion? A smaller lot than the rest of the neighborhood? A low income duplex among $400,000 family homes? The only thing that this will accomplish is to reduce the value of the higher income properties. Perhaps legislators need to hit refresh and remember that local governments get their tax base from property taxes and should banish this idea back to the Obama era.