Civil Bites | 50-Year Mortgages: A Broken Housing System

This episode discusses the U.S. housing crisis and explores the proposed 50-year mortgage. It delves into why housing prices continue to rise while incomes stagnate, highlighting the insufficient housing supply and increased mobility of Americans. We also discuss socio-political factors that influence migration patterns, including LGBT laws and racial inequalities. We talk about the proposed long-term mortgage for its impracticality, address the potential consequences of current policies, and stress the urgent need for building and investment, especially in underdeveloped areas, as a viable solution.

00:00 Introduction: The 50-Year Mortgage Proposal
00:11 The Housing Supply Crisis
00:39 Migration Patterns and Their Impact
01:43 Economic Factors and Housing Prices
02:04 Challenges of a 50-Year Mortgage
02:28 Healthcare and Lifespan Considerations
02:57 Socioeconomic Factors and Home Ownership
04:29 The Need for Comprehensive Investment
04:47 A Call to Action for 2028

Transcript

0:00

This administration is now toying with the idea of considering a 50 year mortgage. Why do home prices keep going up? But our incomes have not kept up with the pace. The culprit that most people would point out is the housing supply. Over the last 30 to 40 years, the United States has not built enough housing to control the demand for people trying to buy new homes and trying to move to new places. We are a much more mobile people now, in comparison to the Boomers, they were able to buy a home, live and work in the same place for forever. There is just not enough supply out there for single family homes with all the moving around that we are doing. I mean, if you think about it, we live in a very blue county and city, but any other gay or brown or black person live in an area where this MAGA extremism has been taken a hold of your state for the last decade. If you're lucky, you work hard, get educated, and then get out. We even touched on this topic recently about how anti LGBT laws are affecting the state of Missouri's economy. But if you're either gay, brown or black, or even a well educated young person, you are more likely to leave for a bluer state where large chunks of the population coexist. And if you can't move to a blue state, people gravitate towards the crowded metro cities. I mean, a majority of the major cities out there are held by Democratic representatives. I'd assume an alt-right Christian living in a deep blue area would be doing the exact opposite. And it's not just the minorities that are moving. People move to bigger cities or areas for jobs, amenities like healthcare and an overall sense of stability. But in terms of the housing crisis, it's a simple economics problem of supply and demand. If you have more people searching for fewer homes, they start to build up the price which make the home appreciation accelerate. If you factor in a 50 year mortgage, the same thing is going to continue to happen. The self-defeating purpose of Trump's proposal, and we don't even know how serious this even is. There are clearly legal and regulatory issues that have to be ironed out on whether a 50 year mortgage is even possible. I mean, for the first time ever, the average age for a first time home buyer in America is 40 years old. So. Do the math, you'd be 90 by the time you finally own it. I'm not expecting the Republicans to just swoop in and wave some magic wand for universal healthcare, where life expectancy significantly increases. The total lifespan for a US citizen is 78. Missouri is 74, Texas, 76, California 79, and those numbers are drastically down due to COVID, which the alt-right claimed was a hoax. We don't even put enough focus on healthcare. You'll be dead by the time you own the home. Well, let me switch gears here today, a person the age of 40 has a 17 to 35% chance of reaching the age of 90. That all depends on genetics and socioeconomic status. Also, keep in mind that no one is having babies. The Republicans won't invest in childcare because it's too damn expensive. So you die, you're 80. The bank takes her home because they, you don't have any kids. Or if you did have kids, they'll be stuck in their own 50 year mortgages and. No one can seem to fix the pathway to citizenship problem that seemed to work in the 1920s, but apparently it just doesn't work. Now, that's if people still even want to live here, because after all this administration is done to the families of non-citizens. That's just another story for a different day. We're just going to end up with a bunch of rundown vacant homes and Republicans. They'll pass it on to the next generation to fix, just like they do with every problem. The climate crisis, next generation, the national debt, next generation. I mean, look at how they handled immigration. The New York Times actually quoted me on an article during my week as a delicate at the Chicago DNC. My number one point for Kamala Harris's election bid was. Home ownership. There are just way too many people in our age bracket that don't own homes. They can't afford a home. There is no end in sight with this current housing crisis in America. And a 50 year mortgage is not the answer we need to build. We need to invest. And let me emphasize that it needs to be in every part of the country, not just the booming Texas, new York's and Florida's. It needs to be the Missouri, the Kansas, the Michigan. It is an essential top tier priority that the Democratic Party must aggressively concentrate on in 2028.