The idea of a 50-year mortgage has been floated as a way of lowering the bar for first-time homebuyers, but I'm concerned such answers don't amount to much more than financial sleight-of-hand that will benefit banks more than the Gen Zers and Millennials who have been priced out of the housing market.
Spreading out payments over a longer period of time doesn't address the essential issues of inventory, price, and interest rates. What we need is to improve economic realities for individuals and families. Rather than just lowering the bar, let's couple that with raising prospects.
For instance, during the shutdown, a lot of focus has gone into lamenting the fate of food assistance, and rightly so because our safety nets are important. But why do we never seem to put our focus on eliminating the need to use such programs?
We should make lifting people out of poverty a key economic indicator rather than an unmeasured byproduct of generic growth; this should become a national priority. Rather than measuring success by just GDP and employment statistics, let's focus on and celebrate the number of people who move away from dependency on government assistance and into economic stability.
And for those not dependent on government assistance, let's rate our performance as a nation on their ability to progress and gather the financial means required to own a home and raise a family.
We need to wake up and build a pro-family culture. And that requires housing, not just words. Homes in which families can thrive.
It also requires action.
The 2026 midterm elections aren't far out on the horizon. Let's start making our voices heard on affordability, calling for regulatory policies that lower interest rates, the cost of building, and with it the cost of houses.
Go forward bravely,
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