by Helen Sabin, Corvallis
Montana Free Press interview questions, 9/01/22, show that Monica Tranel is a socialist!
HOUSING QUESTION: Housing costs are an increasing concern for many Montanans. What federal action would you support to promote housing affordability in Montana?
TRANEL’S ANSWER: “…Congress must support efforts to increase the supply of housing with funding and incentives. We must also ensure families get a fair shot at owning and renting a home. We have all seen the proliferation of Airbnb short-term rentals and home purchases by “companies” in the past few years as a way to make a profit. Congress should eliminate tax incentives “investors” get by buying up homes that could be purchased by families that live and work here in Montana.
LOGICAL THINKING: Wait! What? She doesn’t make sense. She says that congress should increase the housing supply with “incentives,” and then congress should eliminate those same incentives for “investors?” Who are these “investors” she dislikes? Many Montana families own two houses, one to live in and one to make money from. Why does she dislike them? Who are the ones she wants to give incentives to? Could large builders who fund her campaign be the ones who will get incentives and small builders that don’t will NOT get incentives? Further, is it the job of Congress to ensure that those who want a home should get it? How about they work for it? How about saving money to buy one instead of spending a thousand dollars to get tattoos, a thousand dollars for an apple phone, or one hundred dollars for jeans with holes in them just to be trendy?
She doesn’t like the idea of “free market” economics apparently. She thinks that investing in a second house to make a profit is a bad thing. But isn’t that what builders do every time they build a house? To make a profit on selling them?
She wants CONGRESS (i.e. your tax money) to buy those homes to give to someone else. The average price of a home today in Montana according to the Motley Fool website is $428,700. That’s a 30% increase from 2020, when the median was $329,000. And she wants the government to buy them? Big spender isn’t she? Will Tranel subsidize those houses like we are doing for college student loans to get votes? Seems so to me!
If houses are in short supply in Montana, the only way to get them is to build them, pay the asking price for them, or use eminent domain to take them! Guess what she would choose from her answer above? Watch out everyone. If you have a second home, Monica thinks you shouldn’t have it and is coming after it, one way or another.
Tranel’s socialism is wrong for Montana. Elect Ryan Zinke for Congress in November.
John Grant says
Helen,
Your interest in “affordable housing” is to be respected as it affects everyone in Ravalli County; wage earners, the employers who hire them as school teachers, health care workers, virtually any service providers you can name and in the construction trades.
Too, I am glad Monica Tranel’s thoughts/ideas on addressing “affordable housing” apparently prompted you to respond by bashing Tranel’s every thought on the subject, demonstrating that your comments only bolster your oft repeated screed there is nothing the Federal Government might be involved in that can be anything but the slippery slope to “socialism”. Yet again a blow any who do not fully embrace your particular wisdom.
However, in this case, your predictable invocation of the Milton Friedman doctrine for the ultra right, “free markets”, crumbles pretty quickly in the face of “free market” realities as it applies to actually achieving “affordable housing” on any scale. Your notion that everyone who can should “invest” in a second home to “make a profit” through rental income is not going to do thing in terms of creating “affordable housing”.
Using numbers you cite from the Motley Fool of current cost of a single family house in Montana currently at $428,700. If “bought” (or built” by an investor expecting a 7% return on his investment, including cost of property taxes (at 1% of market value) and insurance ($200/month ?) but before maintenance and repairs, would have to generate rental income of $2,535 per month. How many jobs in Ravalli County are there to support that rent? At the 2020, average price you quote of $329,000 using the same formula, a 7% return would require a monthly rental income of $,1946. Still out of reach of starting school teachers and most other wage earners.
Then, for the sake getting the discussion to “affordability”, lets say the private investor you suggest can meet this challenge is willing to accept a 4% return on the 2020 average price. Monthly rent of $1,112 gets the investor that 4% return.
How many units do you think the private sector might get built under any of these scenarios? The answer is not many and the “affordability” is still in question.
Monica Tranel , AT LEAST has engaged the question(s) around a serious issue. Never, in her answer that “congress must support efforts to increase the supply of housing with funding and incentives………” was there a hint of a suggestion of “eminent domain”; no matter that the extreme right applies that threat to anything it pleases. Employment of that terms is nothing short of fear mongering.
If Ryan Zinke has engaged this issue I have not heard his views. But Ryan may have difficulty grasping these mundane challenges facing Montanans as he “views” them from his estate in the hills above Santa Barbara overlooking the blue Pacific. I am certain Tranel is more than willing to engage the illusive Zinke on this and many other real issues not on his radar.
By the way, Helen, I could not agree with you more on the choices consumers make and I could add several to the list you provided. What’s your answer to that kind of cultural behavior?
John Grant says
Well, Helen Sabin sure does give the perspective of how it ought to work for as one who can afford the home they live in plus another (or more) they can rent to solve the “affordable housing shortage” for those who can’t afford to own housing. That would include school teachers, health care workers, law enforcement officers and farm workers.
So Helen, what is your expected return on on that $350, ooo home you purchase for the “affordable rental market? After your insurance and property taxes, but not allowing for any maintenance or repairs you will need to rent that house for $2,400 per month to realize a 7% return on your investment. Is that a sufficient return. If you need 8% rent will be $2,775. If your heart really is in “affordable housing” a monthly rent of $1,200 per month, while not exactly low, would generate a less than 3% return on your $350,000 investment. I doubt that rate of return is going to attract a significant pool of investors.
How many jobs, in the work force of Ravalli County, pay wages or even a salary that can afford $1,200 amount rent much less $2,400? You might anticipate some significant vacancy at the $2,400 level.
That Monica Tranel thinks about viable solutions for those on the other end of the economic example you describe is not “socialism”. It is wrestling with the problems that affect a significant number of your neighbors in Ravalli County and across this country we share.
Before labeling Tranel as a “socialist” for addressing the problem, can you please give some clue as to what Ryan Zinke has put forth on this issue; if anything?
I have tried to find what is Mr. Zinke’s stance on several issues. He is consistently vague. In his defense, I am sure thinking about the mundane issues facing so many Montanans, is a distant and obscure focus from the hills above Santa Barbara, California.
Monica Tranel is a Montnanan, she is boots on the ground every single day and she embraces the challenges for many Montanans and the opportunities for ALL Montanans irrespective of their economic status or their political leanings.
Laurie says
Helen….you really believe your rhetoric? Unbelievable!
Your statements just scream “judgement” and calling someone a “socialist” (really? Do you collect social security and get Medicare as well as travel on federally funded highways?) is just another excuse for your weekly spewing of un fact checked nonsense. It’s also none of your business or anyone else’s who has tattoos, wears tattered jeans or anything else that people choose to spend their earnings on, I also don’t know a lot of Montanan’s that own 2 homes, and in fact a lot are working more than 1 job to just be able to rent or own 1 home..
Perhaps you should research the word “socialist” before labeling people and also ask yourself what part of “socialism” is benefiting you and others who love to throw the word around.
I can already hear the whining of Zinke supporters when they carelessly begin losing access to our public lands as he and his band of crooks begin selling them off to their wealthy friends. I would also ask that you carefully look into his fact checked background. I know that’s a lot to ask but since you consider yourself such an “expert” in these matters, you may well learn something new!
Laurie says
Helen, oh Helen..shameful. When are you going to stop your non factual rhetoric? Do you receive social security, Medicare and drive on our highways? It’s always so easy to label someone as a “socialist.”
Also, facts please on how many Montanan’s own 2 or more houses? REALLY? What will you come up with next?
Try doing a bit of background checking on Zinke. I don’t believe we need any more crooks in office selling off our public lands to their wealthy friends, wasting taxpayers money to benefit themselves all the way while laughing their way to the bank off the backs of uninformed Montanans. We are not as gullible as these thieves think we are. You must be because aren’t you tired yet of all the nonsense you spew? Most people who read your weekly attacks do so with humorous mirth and the thought of “what will ole Helen come up with next” before shaking their heads in disbelief.