The John Locke Foundation published an article yesterday advocating that the Raleigh Republicans override local zoning regulations to enable more houses to be built. This is presented as the solution for unaffordable homes.
Congressman Pat Harrigan from North Carolina recently had an article at Breitbart. He states the following:
Look at what’s already happening in North Carolina. In Charlotte, Wall Street-backed landlords control more than 11,000 single-family homes, about 18 percent of the market. In Raleigh, it’s roughly 13 percent. These are homes where families should be building equity, not paying rent to an investment firm in New York.
And this transformation happened fast. In 2011, virtually no investors owned single-family rental portfolios of this size nationwide. By 2015, institutional investors owned up to 300,000 homes. During COVID, they bought even more amid unprecedented market disruption and historically low borrowing costs.
I am glad Trump is addressing the problem of investor-owned single homes, but I am not sure of the impact he will have. The North Carolina General Assembly needs to stop the practice of large corporations owning homes in our state. In fact, that needed to happen several years ago. While localities can be more flexible regarding the matter of zoning and planning, that ought not be Raleigh’s main approach to solving this problem. Many single homes are currently being built without overriding localities’ prerogatives.
Be the first to reply