A long time ago, in blog terms, I read this article in the Seattle Times about how former Mayor, Norm Rice, chairs a committee that is going to attempt to get housing subsidies for middle class income earners.
No, I didn’t make a typo there. The weenies in Seattle are now beyond concerning themselves about low-income homeowners and have moved on to folks who make just under $100K a year.
With very strict rules on subdividing lots and the city looking to ban large homes, along with restrictions in the county as to how and who can subdivide their acreage, housing is a big deal in King County. The median house costs $450K and the demand has dropped less than 20% from last year, so the housing slump isn’t really touching us up here.
I sure as hell can’t figure it out. I paid good money to move one county south and am willing to pay even more to get out of the whole state. But I came to the conclusion a long time ago that most folks just don’t seem to care where they live and deserve what they get.
But that isn’t even the worst part of the whole story.
A week later, the writer of the previously linked article filed her story about how a “concerned” Seattle Public School Teacher put it to his students to find a solution to this problem.
Their answers are proof that it is the Democrats who have been purposely dumbing down the school systems.
Put “safe zones” around affordable housing to save it from being replaced by “big, fancy homes.”
Put a cap on how much you can sell your home for. “Like the most you could sell it for is, say, 20 percent more than you bought it,” one kid suggested.
How about requiring people to live in their homes for so many years before selling, to get them involved and cut back on flipping?
One student stated a belief: “People shouldn’t be able to get rich from houses when it keeps good lower- and middle-class people from being able to live in their own city.”
Good little socialists they’re raising there, don’t you agree?
Yeah, that is great. You should be able to make money off of any commodity. Plus, these kids have never had to have their major income earner posted to different jobs (some overseas) at a whim. I guarantee that my dad never “flipped” a house, even though he had only owned a couple of them for a few months (weeks in one case). Not only that he usually lost money on them. I also love the cap comment. So some poor shmoe buys their house forty years ago and they can only get 20% of what they bought it for? So the land alone now would be worth 500% of the original price, to only get 20%. Talk about a crappy investment. I know I do not need to explain all this to those of you that will read it, but it is nice to rant about it. Ah, now I see the power of Blogs!