Should owning a home be a path to building wealth in the United States?.No, says Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D-Newton).Auchincloss, who supports building more housing in Massachusetts, thinks home values should decrease over time, not increase. He also thinks people should make other investments to build wealth.Here is what he told Ezra Klein of The New York Times in a February 19, 2025 podcast interview:And this speaks to a really core challenge that we have in our housing sector, which is: We go out there, and we say two things simultaneously. We say: Boy, we need more affordable housing — housing should be cheaper. And then we say: You should build wealth by owning a home.[Laughs.] Well, which is it? Because the two things can’t be true at the same time. You can’t have housing be a commodity that declines as a share of wallet over time and have housing be an asset that you expect to appreciate over time.My answer is quite stark. Housing should be a commodity that declines in price over time. And there are other ways to build wealth. In fact, there are myriad ways to build wealth. But one of them should not be in rent-seeking off land value appreciation. Homeownership has been one of the most reliable ways to build wealth in the United States, according to the Urban Policy Institute. The average homeowner has a net worth about $390,000 higher than the average renter in the country, the think tank says. The homeowners are worth, on average, around $400,000, while renters are typically worth around $10,400, according to The Aspen Institute. That means the average homeowner has a net worth about 40 times greater than the average renter.Although many Americans invest in other assets, renters are far less likely to invest in the stock market than homeowners.While 61.9 percent of homeowners participate in the stock market, the same is true for only 25.7 percent of renters, according to an Oxford Academic study.In Massachusetts, cost is one of the greatest barriers to home ownership, despite being one of the country's wealthiest states. The median home price in The Bay State is $622,300 -- far higher than the national median price of $418,489, according to Housezeo.In part due to these high prices, Massachusetts has a home ownership rate (62.7 percent) slightly below the national average (65.6 percent), according to Voroni. The same report notes that another New England state, Maine, has the second-highest homeownership rate in America (77.2 percent). The average home value in the state is around $360,000, according to News Center Maine. However, the center and northern parts of the state, which are rural and have a stagnant economy, are more affordable than its southern coastal communities. During the same interview with Klein, Auchincloss also said the Democrats should not try to win back lost voters with a watered down version of the Republican Party's agenda, something he called "Diet Coke" populism."Whether that's immigration or trans issues or the culture wars -- and my view of that is voters who ordered a Coca-Cola don't want a Diet Coke," Auchincloss told Klein. "There's two different parties and we have to start by understanding who our voters are not and then understand who our voters could be and go and try to win them over."If you walk into the polls and your number-one issue is guns, if you walk into the polls and you're number-one issue is immigration, if you're walking into the polls and your number-one issue is trans participation in sports, you're probably not going to be a Democratic voter," he added. "That's O.K.. There's two parties. But if you're a voter who went Obama-Trump-Biden-Trump and you're walking into the polls and your number-one issue is cost of living, boy, we better win you back."
Should owning a home be a path to building wealth in the United States?.No, says Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D-Newton).Auchincloss, who supports building more housing in Massachusetts, thinks home values should decrease over time, not increase. He also thinks people should make other investments to build wealth.Here is what he told Ezra Klein of The New York Times in a February 19, 2025 podcast interview:And this speaks to a really core challenge that we have in our housing sector, which is: We go out there, and we say two things simultaneously. We say: Boy, we need more affordable housing — housing should be cheaper. And then we say: You should build wealth by owning a home.[Laughs.] Well, which is it? Because the two things can’t be true at the same time. You can’t have housing be a commodity that declines as a share of wallet over time and have housing be an asset that you expect to appreciate over time.My answer is quite stark. Housing should be a commodity that declines in price over time. And there are other ways to build wealth. In fact, there are myriad ways to build wealth. But one of them should not be in rent-seeking off land value appreciation. Homeownership has been one of the most reliable ways to build wealth in the United States, according to the Urban Policy Institute. The average homeowner has a net worth about $390,000 higher than the average renter in the country, the think tank says. The homeowners are worth, on average, around $400,000, while renters are typically worth around $10,400, according to The Aspen Institute. That means the average homeowner has a net worth about 40 times greater than the average renter.Although many Americans invest in other assets, renters are far less likely to invest in the stock market than homeowners.While 61.9 percent of homeowners participate in the stock market, the same is true for only 25.7 percent of renters, according to an Oxford Academic study.In Massachusetts, cost is one of the greatest barriers to home ownership, despite being one of the country's wealthiest states. The median home price in The Bay State is $622,300 -- far higher than the national median price of $418,489, according to Housezeo.In part due to these high prices, Massachusetts has a home ownership rate (62.7 percent) slightly below the national average (65.6 percent), according to Voroni. The same report notes that another New England state, Maine, has the second-highest homeownership rate in America (77.2 percent). The average home value in the state is around $360,000, according to News Center Maine. However, the center and northern parts of the state, which are rural and have a stagnant economy, are more affordable than its southern coastal communities. During the same interview with Klein, Auchincloss also said the Democrats should not try to win back lost voters with a watered down version of the Republican Party's agenda, something he called "Diet Coke" populism."Whether that's immigration or trans issues or the culture wars -- and my view of that is voters who ordered a Coca-Cola don't want a Diet Coke," Auchincloss told Klein. "There's two different parties and we have to start by understanding who our voters are not and then understand who our voters could be and go and try to win them over."If you walk into the polls and your number-one issue is guns, if you walk into the polls and you're number-one issue is immigration, if you're walking into the polls and your number-one issue is trans participation in sports, you're probably not going to be a Democratic voter," he added. "That's O.K.. There's two parties. But if you're a voter who went Obama-Trump-Biden-Trump and you're walking into the polls and your number-one issue is cost of living, boy, we better win you back."
