‘A house is more than just an asset’: Walz and Vance clash in VP debate

WASHINGTON
—
Minnesota
Gov.
Tim
Walz
and
Sen.
J.D.
Vance,
R-Ohio,
disagreed
on
the
root
causes
of
the
high
cost
of
housing
in
the
first
and
only
vice
presidential
debate. 

Walz
repeatedly
pressed
the
idea
that
housing
should
be
seen
as
more
than
an “asset”
or
a “commodity.” 

“A
house
is
more
than
just
an
asset,”
he
said. 

The
comments
likely
referenced
growing
institutional
ownership
of
the
housing
market,
an
issue
already
hit
on
directly
by
current
Vice
President
Kamala
Harris
in
her
presidential
campaign. 

“This
issue
of
housing
—
and
I
think
those
of
you
listening
on
this
—
the
problem
we’ve
had
is
that
we’ve
got
a
lot
of
folks
that
see
housing
as
another
commodity,”
Walz
said. “It
can
be
bought
up,
it
can
be
shifted,
it
can
be
moved
around.
Those
are
not
folks
living
in
those
houses.” 

The
Harris
campaign
has


proposed
a
number
of
housing
policies
that
aim
to
make
a
home
purchase
more
affordable,
such
as
a
25,000
subsidy
for
first-time
buyers.
She
also
called
on
Congress
to
pass
a
bill
that
would
prevent
an
investor
who
acquires
50
or
more
single-family
rental
homes
from
deducting
interest
and
depreciation
on
those
properties,
as
well
as
that
would
make
it
illegal
for
rental
property
owners
to
use
companies
that
coordinate
rental
housing
prices. 

“Some
corporate
landlords,
some
of
them
buy
dozens,
if
not
hundreds,
of
houses
and
apartments,
then
they
turn
them
around
and
rent
them
out
at
extremely
high
prices,”
Harris
said


in
an
August
speech. “And
it
can
make
it
impossible,
then,
for
regular
people
to
be
able
to
buy
or
even
rent
a
home.” 

Vance,
meanwhile,
repeatedly
pinned
economic
issues,
such
as
inflation,
on
the
policies
of
the
Biden
administration,
and
on
Harris’
role
within
that
administration.

 “If
she
wants
to
enact
all
of
these
policies
to
make
housing
more
affordable,
I
invite
her
to
use
the
office
that
the
American
people
already
gave
her,
not
sit
around
and
campaign
and
do
nothing
while
Americans
find
the
American
dream
of
homeownership
completely
unaffordable,”
he
said.

Vance
also
said
that
immigrants
who
have
entered
the
U.S.
illegally
have
also
contributed
to
the
housing
shortage. 

“You’ve
got
housing
that’s
totally
unaffordable
because
we
brought
in
millions
of
illegal
immigrants
to
compete
with
Americans,”
he
said. 

Vance
also
backed
a
plan
promoted
by
former
President
Donald
Trump
to
build
new
houses
on
seized
federal
lands. 

Vance
said
that
high
regulation,
which
he
tied
to
Harris,
is
to
blame
for
unaffordable
housing. 

“It
is
also
the
regulatory
regime
of
Kamala
Harris.
Look,
we
are
a
country
of
builders,”
he
said. “We’re
a
country
of
doers.
We’re
a
country
of
explorers,
but
we
increasingly
have
a
federal
administration
that
makes
it
harder
to
develop
our
resources,
makes
it
harder
to
build
things,
and
wants
to
throw
people
in
jail
for
not
doing
everything
exactly
as
Kamala
Harris
says
they
have
to
do.” 

He
said
that
he


agreed
with
Walz’s
point
about
housing
being
a “commodity,”
but
again
sought
to
draw
a
connection
with
immigration
policies. 

“We
should
get
out
of
this
idea
of
housing
as
a
commodity,
but
the
thing
that
has
most
turned
housing
into
a
commodity
is
giving
it
away
to
millions
upon
millions
of
people
who
have
no
legal
right
to
be
here,”
he
said. 

Walz
said
that
immigration
isn’t
the
root
cause,
and
that
the
government
could
play
a
role
in
boosting
housing
supply,
and
therefore
address
the
problem
of
housing
affordability. 

“We
can’t
blame
immigrants
…
that’s
not
the
case
that’s
happening
in
many
cities,”
he
said. “The
fact
of
the
matter
is
that
we
don’t
have
enough
naturally
affordable
housing,
but
we
can
make
sure
that
the
government
is
there
to
kickstart
it.”