One of the things that I have always kind of appreciated about Trump is that for the most part he just kind of does what he wants without generally seeking a lot of approval from anyone. I know that all politicians are constantly playing the game of getting the people to like them, and this job has certainly been a lot tougher for Trump who has what appears to be the entire news and media organization working around-the-clock against him, but I never really thought that too many of the things he was doing and saying were simply political moves to curry public favor and opinion in his direction.
This latest thing that he Tweeted about (or Truthed about, I can't keep up with all this) regarding banning investment firms from the purchase of single-family homes seemed to me to be a bit of attempting to get into the good graces of a group of people that are for the most part, always against him.
It was a long message, as his messages tend to be, and I do get these forwarded to me on a Telegram page and read them most days just to see what sort of crazy things the guy is saying. This one to me seemed really out of this normal wheelhouse but well, how can you read that and not be thinking "yes, this is a good idea."
I'm not real big on the inclusion of a real-life person as an example here. Every time I see that I think back to that crazy lady from Alaska that ran with John McCain against Obama back however long ago that was (oh! Sarah Palin was her name) and how she would talk about "Bob the builder, Carol the cashier, Wendy the waitress" and other junk that was a clear and stupid attempt of trying to relate to the masses.
This protection of the normal person against "evil corporations" is something that will be impossible for most people to oppose but there are a lot of problems with this statement on Trump's part, that I am sure the MSM will point out in great detail over the coming days if the decide to talk about it at all.
While this image is painted of corporations coming in and buying up everything is a scary one and one that I definitely don't want to see happen, the fact of the matter is that this doesn't actually happen all that often. I went and looked and corporations buying single-family homes for investment purposes only happens about 1-3% of the time. This is not why houses are so expensive - I dont really know why they are but I am quite happy that I bought my land and house back in the 90's, that is for sure.
There is also the issue of defining what these things actually mean. What does "gigantic investment firms" mean? Is it any entity that isn't an individual? This will need to be more clearly defined. Will it apply to banks taking control of real-estate? It certainly wont apply to government seizures and foreclosures, will it?
I haven't been involved in the real-estate game for a long time but I do know that housing prices are just insane right now and I believe that politicians are looking for someone to blame and to curry favor with the constituents by pointing out a rogue enemy that is causing the problem supposedly. I think the reality of the situation is that while I don't like using bland and overused terms like "housing crisis" that there is more of a demand for housing right now then there is supply. I didn't take a lot of business classes but this applies to everything including all the work that my business does: If people want something in a way that exceeds how much of that thing exists, the prices go through the roof. This is not a new phenomenon.
While I do think that it is nice of the "big guy" to take a step to protect the average Joe or Bob the builder, this Executive Order and proposed law, isn't really going to apply to a great many situations.
I suppose it is a nice gesture though, it's just a shame that it isn't really going to change a great deal about the overpriced housing markets.