HUD’s Great Society BUST

What does HUD have to show for the trillions it’s spent?  Ponder how US homeownership today is the same as in 1967, 2 yrs after the dept. opened for biz. Did stupid politics ruin a noble idea until it’s a joke today?

Jack Ryan’s WSJ article is damning: “Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program created the Dept of Housing & Urban Development to reduce housing costs & increase homeownership … [Yet] … in 1967 US homeownership rate was 64%. Nearly 6 decades & $3 trillion of spending (in 2024 dollars) later,” the Census Bureau estimates the home ownership rate still stuck on that 64% number. Ryan says the reality is far worse still because rental & home prices have “increased faster than inflation,” so that a home in 1967 priced at $22,000 is now selling for $500,000. Again, “In 1967, the average home cost about three times an average family’s income; today, it’s seven times.”

Don’t look now, but today’s massive real estate “bubble” you’ve been reading about is as dangerously large if not more so than the 2008 one. As such, we are at risk of yet “another financial crisis brought on by overly leveraged personal balance sheets.” What does Ryan suggest Uncle Sam do now? “Get out of the way,” he advises. He cites how “bipartisan deregulation from 1976 to 2000 dramatically reduced the cost & increased the supply of stock-brokerage & telecommunicators services as well as air, rail & trucking transportation.” We’re told it also led to innovations such as cellphones, discount airlines & exchange-traded funds. And, by the way, kill the National Assn of Realtors rules which “cause realty [sales] fees to be 2 or 3 times as much as those of other developed countries.” Elon Musk is calling for “zero-based budgeting” for all federal agencies to force them to justify their budget requests every year. Meanwhile, the meltdown clock ticks.

Davd Soul