The author has chosen to use a question-answer format in order to
make the often complex subject matter, easier and more enjoyable to
read. Q and A is not a dialogue bewteen real people -- the author has
provided the dialogue for both Q, standing for Quaero, which is Latin
means "I search for" and A, Auctor, which in Latin means "person
responsible."
Q-To start out, would you mind condensing
your views on a couple issues and then you can expand your position
during the course of our conversation?
A-Certainly.
Q-First, do you see lack of affordable housing as a problem?
A-The
lack of afffordable housing is only a problem if you believe each
generation should do as well, if not better than the previous
generation and if by "well" you mean home ownership among today's youth
should be present in as high if not a higher percentage than
yesterday's. By this criteria alone, we have a problem.
Q-What are the main causes of high housing prices?
A-High
prices are due to government's inteference in the free market via
wrong-headed and excessive restrictions, regulations, mandates and tax
manipulations.
Q-What solutions do you favor?
A-The
solution lies in removing excessive government regulations, recognizing
the tantamount role private property rights play in our society and
letting the free market solve the supply and demand imbalance in
housing.
Q-I've heard a lot about the decline of home ownership in this country. Is it as a bad as people claim?
A-It
depends on what you've heard? Before the second world war less than
half the housing units in America were owned by their occupants. Easy
homeowner financing and the housing boom which followed the war brought
home ownership within reach of more and more Americans and by 1955
fifty-five percent of all households owned their own homes, with that
number rising to over sixty-five percent by 1980.
But soaring
prices, high interest and a decline in inventory has recently resulted
in fewer people participating in the dream of home ownership and owner
occupied units had dropped to just under sixty-four percent in 1987 and
has failed to come back.
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