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I'll go out on a limb here and say I like the basic idea. One major detail I would change is to make it a $100,000 or $50,000 minimum instead of $500,000. There are many parts of the country where it's hard to even find a house that's as expensive as $250,000. I'd like something like this to be open to all parts of the country and I'd like it to be open to middle class as well, not just wealthy people. Why do I like…
Well, the places where it's super hard to find a house at 500k, and somewhat easy at 100k, are the border states... New Mexico, Arizona, Texas (and Nevada). In these places, the 500k house is going to be the cream of the crop... the top 1%. Southern California is a different issue, but this isn't going to help the places where the housing market really took a shit, like Nevada and Arizona, because the market there is…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
New science, engineering, medical graduates who have just finished a US degree/masters/PhD?
I'm pretty sure that they can (or will) buy a house... Maybe not on the coasts, but as a grad student, I could buy a house in Indiana.
A better idea would be to relax visa standards for starting a business that hires x number of americans. Those employees would have a far bigger impact on the economy as a whole as the majority of their income would be pumped right back in for basic necessities.
Once they start a business here, guess what? They'll need somewhere to live and since they're rich they can still buy that $500k+ house.
I'll go out on a limb here and say I like the basic idea. One major detail I would change is to make it a $100,000 or $50,000 minimum instead of $500,000. There are many parts of the country where it's hard to even find a house that's as expensive as $250,000. I'd like something like this to be open to all parts of the country and I'd like it to be open to middle class as well, not just wealthy people. Why do I like…
You're assuming that the people will live in the homes that they buy. They could just as easily spend $50,000 on a shack in Detroit, let it continue to decay, and just live in an apartment in Palo Alto. Of course, I guess that loophole could be closed in the legislation, but every patch I can think of for closing it has its own loopholes.
Given the 500k/250k amount, one might suspect that propping up home prices in the mid to upper part of the market is the intent.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The only beneficiaries I can think of for this program would be rich capitalists from China and the Middle East ..." Actually, Canadians are largest percentage of foreigners buying homes in the U.S. at 23%.[1] [1] Canadians Warm to Phoenix, Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020401060457659...
They would extend the offer only to those that spend half a million dollars on a home. I have a feeling that excludes most of the Canadians bargain hunting for property in Phoenix.
First of all, housing is still overpriced, in terms of historic trends, in many markets.
Second, this is yet another program for ICE, which cannot manage its current immigration visa portfolio. This idea seems particularly open to abuse, since the home could be bought with borrowed money. (Sure it has to be "cash" investment but there's an asset here, you could easily cash out or have straw buyers.)
I wish these guys would come up with better solutions to the banking crisis (yes, it isn't over) than selling U.S. visas.
This is the type of unserious, policy-by-press release we've come to expect from the micromanagers in the U.S. Congress. First of all, housing is still overpriced, in terms of historic trends, in many markets. Second, this is yet another program for ICE, which cannot manage its current immigration visa portfolio. This idea seems particularly open to abuse, since the home could be bought with borrowed money. (Sure it…