Nationally, and especially in places like Maine, housing is becoming unaffordable. That kills the American Dream. Can it be reversed? Yet bet it can. Working Americans – single and families – deserve home ownership. Older Americans deserve to be able to stay in their homes.
On the national level, the cost of building a house doubled from 2010 to the 4th quarter of 2024, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data.
Why? Inflation, reflecting unprecedented overspending by Congress and many states, high interest rates to tackle inflation – which also makes buying things on credit hard – and big national debt.
At the same time, COVID’s disruptive state mandates, unstable supply chains, and unconstitutional shutdowns destroyed business and consumer confidence. The shadow lingers.
Biggest factor – one President Trump is working to fix – is the incredible gap between what people earn in real wages (inflation adjusted) and what they can afford with those wages, or in the case of older Americas what they cannot buy a pension, fixed income, or social security.
Put differently, as housing prices – and energy prices – have skyrocketed, wages have not kept pace. Not obviously did fixed incomes. Social Security lagged, despite the annual cost-of-living hike.
Some say “Well, just force wages up” and that is one answer. But a better one is to restart growth, close the “affordability gap” by making every dollar worth more, restoring value, spurring business, creating jobs, bringing capital, supply chains, and production home. And cut wild spending.
Close to home, Maine is the extreme case – blue fiscal failure. Maine’s Democrats are killing Mainers. Not understanding how the government works, was designed to work, and must be limited and accountable, is the problem. Unaccountable leaders produce fear and unsustainably high costs.
Maine housing, specifically, is unaffordable. Why is Maine housing out of reach for young Mainers, and why are older Mainers now in fear of losing their homes due to unaffordable taxes?
Democrats say, “Oh gosh, is that a problem?” or “We just need more public housing.” Wrong. Bull.
Here are the hard facts Democrats own, and will not tell you:
- Maine’s median house price doubled from $162,000 in 2011 to $360,000 in 2023, set to rise 5 percent this year. Prices explode as housing stock stays low, “out of staters” buy, illegals keep coming and getting housing, and Maine incomes stagnate. Democrats own that failure.
- Per person income is $42,000 (across families) and median wages $70,000, but the “income needed to afford a median home” is $140,000. People cannot buy a “median home” if they make half of what it takes for a mortgage. Democrats own that failure.
- Rental prices, which reflect Maine’s shocking cost of living, make rentals for young and old unaffordable. Median monthly rent is now $200 over median monthly income. Democrats own that failure.
- Fully 79.1 percent of Mainers cannot afford a “median home,” while those who own fear losing it to sky-high property taxes, even as senior living options evaporate. Democrats own that failure.
- Maine’s property taxes are highest in the nation – unforgivable. Our “tax burden” is number four, another outrage. Cost of owning a home – “rent” Mainers pay government for what they own – is unaffordable. Democrats own that failure.
The list goes on. How do we fix it? Stop overspending. Stop overtaxing. Stabilize Maine. Start looking after our people. Throw the spendaholic Democrats out, elect an serious Republican governor and legislature.
Then, hit the ground running. Waste no time. Instantly make life more affordable. Cut taxes. Do not swapping one for another. Cut the budget to half its size. Augusta has doubled it in seven years.
Incentivize businesses to stay here, bring in new business, restart the “good cycle” – low taxes for all, homeowners and businesses, to spur growth, jobs, training, profits, home building, and buying. Cut the crazy, endless regulations, and re-incentivize cheaper energy.
Then look at “second order” effects of making the state affordable. We keep kids in the state with good jobs. We reinvigorate Maine’s broken schools, produce confident kids again, teach the value of working hard, producing real things – from ships to homes, energy to hospitals. We end woke.
We reinvigorate trades and services, make words like profit, prosperity, and free markets good again. We create opportunity based on merit and work, Maine values, and create lots of new builders.
We restart industrial arts in the schools, and restart school days with the Pledge of Allegiance, reminding us all America – and Maine – are not accidents, they are the product of risk and sacrifice.
We inspire kids to work, not expect the government to do it for them. We get them back to good outcomes in math, reading, writing, sciences. In the 1990s, Maine was tops in the nation in public education. We are now 49 of 50. That must be swiftly reversed.
Finally, we make Maine safe again, get the drugs out, end organized crime’s push into Maine, adopt the “get well, stay well” plan, and immediately stop importing and protecting illegal aliens.
The real answer to unaffordable housing? Common sense. Cut crime, cut taxes, cut the nonsense.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
