Arriana Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, recently wrote that one of the good ideas that could help the current economy and yet is receiving very little attention from lawmakers is the “Right-to-Rent”. In her column, she discusses the “Right-to-Rent” as follows:...
Read more …Arriana Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, recently wrote that one of the good ideas that could help the current economy and yet is receiving very little attention from lawmakers is the “Right-to-Rent”. In her column, she discusses the “Right-to-Rent” as follows:
“The “Right-to-Rent” was a concept first proposed in 2007 by Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and endorsed by Andrew Samwick, an economics professor at Dartmouth and the former chief economist on George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisors.
Under the plan, after a home is foreclosed on, the homeowners would be given the option to stay in the house paying a fair market rent determined by an independent appraiser. Aside from keeping families from being forced out of their homes, it would also stop the myriad array of problems that follow every foreclosed house -- including the fact that foreclosures drive down the value of surrounding homes. "The own to rent plan is a simple and low cost way to help moderate income homebuyers," wrote Baker when he first introduced the idea. "It doesn't require any tax dollars and does not set up a new government bureaucracy to manage the housing market." As Andrew Samwick put it: "If the government is going to intervene in the aftermath of this meltdown, I haven't seen a better proposal than this one." Samwick and Baker later co-authored an op-ed about the plan.”
