Current Events > Great article on housing policy and affordability

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/5/22/why-america-cant-make-up-its-mind-about-housing

Here are two ideas that, if you’re like most Americans, you probably agree with:

1. Government policy should help keep housing broadly affordable, so as not to price out people of low or moderate incomes from entire neighborhoods, cities, or even metropolitan areas.
2. Government policy should protect residential neighborhoods from things that might negatively impact housing values, because homes are an important investment and wealth-building tool.

Having read them together like that, you’ve probably already jumped ahead to the big reveal, which is that these two ideas are almost entirely mutually exclusive. The first essentially says, “Use housing policy to keep home prices down”; the second says, “Use housing policy to keep home prices up.”

I haven't heard it said so succinctly before
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I'm pissed that it's easier to get a mortgage for a house I can't afford than for one I can.

Seriously, $60-80k should not be hard to get approval for, yet with a 760 credit score I was denied credit (good credit score, not enough "credit history")

Suddenly get pre-approval crap for $160-180k shit from lenders (not guaranteed or anything but the fact that it's even a thought is annoying to me)

They literally WANT me to get a loan I'll default on so they can screw me out of money. I hate this country sometimes.
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