Depreciate Your Home?

Turning the corner onto Wisconsin always makes me a little anxious. And it's because sometimes, just sometimes, I have to look at what I saw last night:

The rear end of the #32 bus, two blocks away, moving up the street. (At that time of night, it would be at least 30 minutes, if not 45, before there's another bus.)

So I did some quick math on the value of my time given my schedule the next day and work still to be done, and determined the economically rational thing to do was hail a cab. Seeing one nearby, I raised my hand and I stepped in...

to a lecture on economics from the cab driver.

He turned down the NPR to tell me spending 40% or more of your income just to have a place to live is really too much, and that changing that in a persistent way could unlock a lot of wealth. Rather than letting house prices change with the market, he went on to say, the government should require owners to depreciate their homes as is done with buildings or equipment purchased by corporations. Then, use an inflation adjusted index as a cap to place a "ceiling" on resale value. By doing so, you could lower and keep low the price of housing across the U.S., allowing families to spend more money on other things.

It was a new idea to me and I said I would think about it. I'm not sure I agree with his proposal, but the idea of trying to lower (for everyone) the percentage of our income that goes into housing is kind of interesting.