Writer Lobbies For Less Home Ownership To Stimulate Economy

[Ayatollahgondola]

The latest book by writer Richard Florida solicits for less home ownership to cure some of American workers woes.
I think he envisions us all as migrants

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/14/274...-for-less.html

"This system makes perfect sense for my father," he said in a phone interview this week. "My father had one job his whole life. But this is an economy where we are shifting jobs more and more. In many cases we have to move."

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/14/274...#ixzz0nvF5cPC1

[Don]

Stimulating the economy by destroying private property ownership?

In 1917 it was tried and was called the Bolshevik Revolution.

[Twoller]

From that link:

Home Front: Book argues for less homeownership, more mobility
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By Jim Wasserman

The Sacramento Bee

Published: Friday, May. 14, 2010 - 12:00 am

Urban theorist Richard Florida says so many people are trapped in homeownership today that it's harming our economy.

"They're underwater. They can't sell the house. They can't rent it. They can't get money to move," he said.

In high-unemployment metro areas such as Sacramento, more people should be moving elsewhere to find work, Florida said. But many can't. They're held back because they own a house.

Florida gained prominence with his theory of a "creative class" of artists, musicians, lesbians, gays and high-tech workers who breathe economic vitality into cities. He's written a new book, "The Great Reset," arguing that we need less homeownership and more mobility to rev up the nation's economy.

"This system makes perfect sense for my father," he said in a phone interview this week. "My father had one job his whole life. But this is an economy where we are shifting jobs more and more. In many cases we have to move."

Florida said: "The system depends on economic flexibility and ability of people to move to opportunity. If they're trapped how can they do it? The house has become an anchor."

Thousands of Sacramento-area households know this well. A new CoreLogic report says 45 percent of mortgaged houses in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo are worth less than the amount owed on them.

Home Front gets phone calls from people stuck professionally and personally because they're in this condition. A young working couple want to return to India for a year or more to care for elderly parents. Will they have to "walk away" from the mortgage and their sizable down payment?

A laid-off engineering professional in a region where no one builds eyes available jobs in other states. But neighborhood foreclosures have driven the family's home values $100,000 or more below the 2003 purchase price.

A 50-something construction industry worker wonders if it's time to leave town. But how to sell a house in Natomas when the neighborhood listings are all bank-owned?

More happily, area renter Leslie Madsen-Brooks, 34, says: "My lack of a mortgage has allowed me to take a job in Boise." She's leaving Davis – quite easily – in July to teach history at Boise State.

"Renters can more easily downshift or move or trade down," said Florida. "They have more ability to adjust to economic shock."

Florida owns a house in Toronto. But he previously rented in Pittsburgh, where the economy is less dynamic. He said he wouldn't buy in Miami or Las Vegas.

"When I look at housing I'm always looking at ability to exit the housing," he said.

Florida was polite enough not to mention Sacramento in that regard. But we fit his contention: Cities with high rates of homeownership lean toward less dynamic economies and higher unemployment than those where flexible renters come and go.

Census statistics say 60.4 percent of dwellings in Sacramento County are owner-occupied. San Francisco: 39 percent.

We do love our single-family homes and quality of life here. But there's no question today which city has a better economy.

So we have an immigrant and a construction worker to thank for making citizen home ownership look irresponsible? What did we need the immigrants for if they are not sure if they even want to live here and what else did we need the construction worker for -- especially in Sacramento -- if not to build houses? And what kind of idiot would compare housing in San Fransisco, which practically an island with that of Sacramento which doesn't like to keep track of its city boundaries.

And so what if you have a house? That doesn't mean you can't sell it if you want to, or have to. If you are unemployed and can find work that requires you to relocate, then you just sell the house. That's the whole point of having property, you own it and can dispose of it as you please. Depending on where you are relocating, having an apartment is not that much of an advantage. You might even be better positioned to find a new residence if you have the equity to purchase another home. Sometimes the apartment market is tougher than the housing one. And what about the necessary level of affluence between renting and owning a house? And on, and on, ...

Where do they get these idiots? Here's a clue from above,

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Florida gained prominence with his theory of a "creative class" of artists, musicians, lesbians, gays and high-tech workers who breathe economic vitality into cities.

....