Retirement withdrawals for housing down payments could cost you $300,000 or more
Every few years, Washington comes up with a "creative" solution to an affordability problem that sounds helpful on the surface and quietly creates a much bigger problem underneath.
The latest example? A proposal tied to President Donald Trump’s housing affordability agenda that would allow Americans to tap their 401(k) retirement savings to fund a down payment on a home.
I understand the intent. Housing affordability is stretched. Home prices are near all-time highs. Mortgage rates are still hovering around 6%. First-time buyers feel locked out. COVID-19 buyers can’t afford to trade up. Politically, this all sounds like a win.
Financially, it’s a terrible idea, in my view. This is the classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul and, in this case, Peter is your future self.
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Politicians always look for solutions that make it easier to pay the unnecessarily high prices, rather than allowing prices to fall.
In this case, though, I think they should allow people more flexibility in how they use their own savings.
I blame the people. The people do not understand how the world works. If they want housing affordability they should stop looking to the federal government for help and pressure their local politicians to relax zoning regulations.
In that case, I blame economists because it’s our job to explain to people how the world works.
Nah, you can't blame Cassandra for the Trojan War, and you can't blame economists for shitty economic policies.
Cassandra was right though! Can we really say the same?
I don't often claim to be confident about much when it comes to economic policy, but I'm pretty confident about this one---demand subsidies aren't going to put a real dent in housing affordability unless the underlying structural issues are addressed (which I view as mostly stemming from over-regulation and monetary inflation.)
I meant the broad economist "we", but you're probably right that we generally would have this one right.
It's also derangement to call it a retirement disaster
By the same logic being housing sidelined because you can't access your savings costs you that in housing equity. So that 3-400k just moves to home equity, and likely more given the leverage on the mortgage, margin vs rent, homestead tax advantages, etc...
Also, who the fuck is this guy to tell anyone else what they should and shouldn’t be allowed to do with their own money?
A quick look at those two websites and it would appear he's a scammer doing clickbait funnel marketing.
Gemini scrape: