Change the US tax code for treatment of capital gain rollovers: favor reinvestment in the preservation of the existing rental housing stock. Require local code adherence or face tax recapture.
Change the US tax code to encourage owner-occupancy for lower-income households by offering tax credits, in addition to using the mortgage interest deduction
Cap the use of the mortgage interest deduction for very high income households, and investment in second and vacation homes
Develop the use of second loans on buildings that are converted to moderate income condominiums
What policies should we be advancing locally, regionally, statewide and on the federal level?
Preservation of existing rental inventory is cheapest way of producing low income housing
Property tax abatements and changes in assessment ratios at County level, help
Community Investment Corporation has developed strong lender/owner education/owner networking/and troubled buildings innovations: Chicago is way ahead of most other localities
Most rental buildings are owned by private individuals who have little motivation, and even less training, to do what they do. In many case, the housing of low income households is incidental to their private ownership. There is a huge role for non-for-profits to play in professionalizing property management.
The explosion of non-for-profit ownership experience in the condo industry should spread to the management of rental housing
Recommendations for a network like CRN?
The federal tax code is inadvertently driving up the price of homes and causing the over-valuation of rental buildings in many neighborhoods. Organizations like CRN have to advocate changes in the use of the federal tax code, to bring the tax code in line with the demand for moderate cost homeownership and affordable rents for poorer households.
CRN should promote the importance of management skills in all forms of rental housing ownership: non for profit professional management has spread to the condo industry, where many lower-income people are becoming aware of their role in the management of their housing.
Qualified tenants in rental properties should be offered the opportunity to purchase their units in the event of a condo conversion. There should be set-asides in apartment building conversions to condos that are financed by public funds.
The McArthur Foundation funding of a recently released Harvard Joint Center for Housing report on the US rental industry raised a significant concern: 70% of all unsubsidized rental units are contained in buildings with less than 10 units. Question: what federal policies would encourage the preservation of these vulnerable housing units?