Vice President Kamala Harris is on a thematic rampage in a bid to secure the votes required for a term in the White House.
Of course, it could be argued that a better approach for Americans would be to enact the required changes while she is in a position of political power rather than her whistlestop tour to secure four more years of it.
This week when talking about housing Harris pledged to build three million homes over four years to address the housing shortage her administration is partly responsible for.
“My mother saved for years to buy a home. I was a teenager when that day finally came – I remember how excited she was,” Harris wrote on X. “Right now, home ownership is out of reach for too many Americans. When I am President, we will end the housing shortage by building 3 million homes and rentals.”
The problem? That would actually mean building less housing!
The United States is currently building 1.4 million homes a year, nearly double Harris’ target of 750,000 a year.
And that’s despite the fact that housebuilding figures have already been substantially reduced under the Biden-Harris administration with figures falling for the first time since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis: “According to U.S. Census Bureau, single-family new home starts, which comprised 66.8% of total 2023 home starts, fell 6.0% from the prior year to 944,500 units. Multi-family starts were down 14.4% from 2022 to 468,600 units. Looking ahead, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) forecasts 2024 total housing starts to decrease 3.4% to 1.37 million units, with single-family starts rising 4.7% but multifamily starts decreasing 19.7% from 2023.”
It’s sometimes a wonder how she has any supporters at all. Then again…
There is ultimately a question of what influence Harris would have.
