“How to Fix the Housing Market Inventory Crisis”

This column appeared in Housing Wire on April 6th and was written national housing economist Ralph McLaughlin. Ralph acknowledges that the $15k FTHB tax credit would only make housing inventory scarcer and prices rise even more. Instead he says D.C. needs to use a carrot-based approach to homeowners, such as capital gains tax exemptions for investors who sell homes to owner occupants, ideally FTHBs. Second, doing the same for owner occupants who have capital gains exceeding the $250k or $500k limits.

Ralph also mentions the idea of offering similar tax incentives to home builders who sell homes to FTHBs. I agree with Ralph as I have written about this before.