How Election Might Affect Housing Market?

Well it goes without saying that no one has a clue how the two most undesirable candidates in U.S history might change the landscape of the economy and especially housing. Given both of the candidates love for all things money I believe it’s safe to assume that policy related to helping the super wealthy will likely remain unchanged. Whether you believe the real estate mogul or Hillary the queen of Wall St hand outs housing is one of the most fragile and arguably influential parts of the American economy.
Believe it or not Hillary Clinton & Bill have a love of real estate but they choose not to share it with most of us, since she by her own admission came from “humble beginnings”, and according to Bill and Hillary left the White House “broke” (or so they say). Oh how things have changed:

  So it’s my guess that with all the real estate the Clinton’s own we are not going to see any sweeping changes to the housing and financing regulations anytime soon because she is the 1%. That’s just my two cents, but according to her campaign Hillary Clinton wants to raise the estate tax up to an astounding 65%. WOW! Let’s make this simple to digest. So if your parents pass and leave you their $100,000, the government would take $65,000 of your parents home’s value from you (heirs). Most of these changes would only apply to the very wealthy.  Forbes Magazine’s Robert Wood: “Hillary’s savvy move could bring in droves of Bernie supporters. But is it likely to pass or to collect large amounts? Probably not. Current law exempts estates worth $5.45 million or less. Beyond that, you pay 40%“.

  Now to go onto Donald’s likelihood of affecting the real estate market. I think it’s probably safe to assume that considering he is a “UGE” fan of all things real estate that whatever he proposes is going to be in favor of the growth of housing. So it will come as no surprise to you that Trump wants to repeal the estate tax. In fact his exact words were:

  “No family will have to pay the death tax. American workers have paid taxes their whole lives. It’s just plain wrong and most people agree with that. We will repeal it.” 

Sounds greedy doesn’t it.. Not really. I know you’re thinking of course it doesn’t to you, you’re a Realtor. Let me explain, why should you have to be taxed what amounts to twice. If you inherit wealth from your family you will have to pay income tax on your new wealth anyway and pretty hefty I might add. So if you’re already paying income taxes why should you also have to pay an additional “estate” tax on the real estate? That is being taxed twice on the same inheritance. 

Regardless which of these two yahoos get into office, the good news is no matter what either one of them propose it still has to go through Congress first. Luckily.