The Biden Regime's Attack on American Homeowners
As the disastrous Biden Regime winds down, Americans need to be reminded of how diligently Biden and his puppet-masters worked to harm the American Middle Class.
The outgoing Biden Regime undermined the American Middle Class for the last four years with one misguided policy after another. As the final days of the Biden Regime run out, I plan to write a few articles detailing some of these policies. In this article, I outline some of the Biden Regime’s efforts to devalue homes owned by suburban Americans. Readers will be quickly reminded the end of Joseph R. Biden’s Presidency cannot come soon enough.
The Importance of Home Ownership
You probably know this already, but for the majority of Americans their homes are the most valuable assets they will ever own. Additionally, homeownership is an important step in acquiring wealth, as studies show homeowners amass significantly more wealth than people who rent. Further, the loss of a home is often financially devastating for homeowners and carries long-term financial impacts. In light of these facts, one would think the United States Government would do everything it could to protect the investments the American people make in their homes, right? Well, not the Biden Regime. Let’s take a closer look at what Biden and company did to devalue the homes of Americans.
Biden Regime Declared War on the Suburbs by Trying to Change the Law
Within months of taking office, President Biden proposed a $2.3 trillion dollar infrastructure plan. Provisions included in this infrastructure plan incentivized local governments to do away with single-family residential zoning and allow federally-subsidized apartment complexes to be constructed in areas zoned for homes. The Washington Examiner ran an informative article on the plan on June 3, 2021:
The article observes:
The U.S. House Republican Policy Committee assailed Biden’s plan as Biden's War On Suburbs in a press release, noting the plan:
Biden tried to use the infrastructure plan to codify an Obama Administration era housing regulation called the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule. The AFFH Rule was intended to put housing projects and other subsidized housing in suburban neighborhoods by requiring localities to eliminate zoning for single-family housing in order to receive HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development) grants or federal highway funds and was widely criticized as a result. The first Trump Administration suspended the rule in 2018, then ended it in 2020. (Here is a link to a good article highlighting one author’s personal experience with the devastating effects of the federally subsidized housing on her neighborhood.)
When Biden was installed as President in January 2021, his administration quickly sought to make an even worse version of these regulations into statutory law.
Stanley Kurtz, a Senior Fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, had this to say about the Biden Regime’s plan:
(Take a moment to read Kurtz’s article. It is worth the time.)
President Trump Warned the American People of Biden’s Plan
During the 2020 Presidential campaign, then President Donald Trump warned the American people about Biden’s disastrous housing plan and how it would harm home ownership. As PJ Media proclaimed in 2021, after the Biden Regime revealed the actual terms of the plan:
As is so often the case, when President Trump and Republicans correctly reveal what the Democrats are planning to do they get hit with bogus “fact checks” from Fake News Media. This illegitimate tactic was employed when Trump and other Republicans claimed then-candidate Biden wanted to eliminate or curtail single family zoning. Fake News Media falsely fact checked Trump and the GOP in an effort to run cover for Biden and the Democrats. Biden made it to the White House and promptly proved Trump was right.
The Biden Regime Doubles Down with Regulatory Changes
While the effort to codify the AFFH rules into law were pending, the Biden Regime took steps to revive the Obama-era regulation. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Biden issued an interim rule restoring some of the Obama Administration era AFFH regulations. Thereafter, in early 2023, HUD issued notice of a proposed new AFFH rule.
An op-ed published by Fox News in February 2023 broke down the Biden Regime’s proposed new AFFH Rule:
The article outlines the implications of the proposed new AFFH Rule, observing:
What affect do you think federally-subsidized apartment complexes or other housing have on the home values in a subdivision? Recent research suggests, as you probably guessed, that housing projects in “higher income neighborhoods” (in the study, a “higher income neighborhood” consisted of median incomes above $54,000.00) resulted in “. . . a strong housing price drop very locally, and then it radiated outward over time.” The researchers analysis revealed a Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) project in a high income area caused substantial losses:
A link to the actual research paper is here.
This is confirmation of the obvious, but worth stating.
As of this writing, the Biden Administration has not actually issued the final regulations, though leftists are pressuring the Biden Regime to issue the regulations in the final days of Biden's term.
What Will the New Trump Administration Do?
Leftists expect the incoming Trump Administration to quickly reverse the Biden Regime's housing rules. Industry analysts also expect the new Trump Administration to reverse these policies. In his first term, President Trump’s Administration literally ended an earlier, less onerous version, of these same regulations. If “What is Past is Prologue,” in the words of Shakespeare, then President Trump will, once again, end this attack on American homeowners. The relief could not come soon enough.
(My latest book Fake News Exposed: 25 of the Worst Media Lies about Conservatives, Guns, COVID and Everything Else is out at Amazon. You may also pick up a copy of one of my other books at Amazon as well.)