Editor’s note: The following is commentary submitted to RISMedia by J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate in Seattle, Washington. John L. Scott Real Estate, with 33 offices and over 1,500 agents, ranked No. 15 out of 1,000 firms on RISMedia’s 2022 Power Broker Report with over $12.5 billion in sales volume. Scott is a longtime featured speaker at RISMedia events, especially the annual Real Estate CEO & Leadership Exchange.
The only way to get the U.S. economy back in alignment is to produce more oil and natural gas and become energy independent once again. This will of course, lower energy prices, food prices and inflation, which will lower home mortgage interest rates, and moderate rental rate increases. Additionally, this will also moderate wage growth, which is the one main factor that is a constant underpinning of high inflation. No more Mumbo Jumbo–do everything until we are actually producing more oil, gas refining and natural gas. (Plus, Europe and the rest of the world needs us to produce.)
I believe in electric cars, but it’s the implementation plan that is taking our nation down a death spiral. Don’t ruin the economy during the transition. If the government wanted electric cars for everyone, it should have used its money to support a low-cost electric car for the masses.
What is happening now is that the spike in home mortgage interest rates has put many first-time buyers on the sidelines due to affordability. So instead, they are renting, which is sending rental rates higher. So now there is talk of national rent control, which is another sign that the energy/economic policies are not working. Rent control is a quick/bad reaction to present circumstances that will produce major consequences down the road. The inflation situation is fixable today. Produce more oil, gas refining and natural gas.
Yes, we need zoning changes so that single family lots can have additional small units for sale on every property, in both urban and rural communities. This is the only way to increase the supply of more affordable housing units. We don’t want to be a renter nation. Homeownership is what built the middle class, provided resources for retirement and helped fund kids’ college tuitions.
We need to get people back into the workforce; all the government programs are keeping many on the sidelines causing worker shortage wage inflation.
Yes, we need to provide a quality education experience for all.We need to rethink the current system and use technology to enhance learning before and after the classroom experience. We need to “Be Smart in Life.”
Due to the change of workforce habits of wanting to work from home and the lack of safety in the core of the job centers, it is imploding the commercial sector. This is where the nation will go into foreclosure.
Bring back law and order in our cities and create safety zones. This way, workers will feel safe to return to the office and employers will stay/move into the cities. This will bring back service jobs in the downtown cores.
In many cities across the nation, all the homeless that need a temporary/transitional unit to stay, have one. The remainder of the situation is alcohol, drugs and mental health. This is what needs to be addressed. We need to take the approach that no one gets to sleep on the streets at night. A huge amount of money is being spent; it is just not being focused. Everything is being classified as homeless, and that’s not an accurate description of what is taking place. The people on the streets– the homeless and those with alcohol, drug and mental health issues–each should have their own tract to solve.
We need to get our excessive national spending under control. It is going to take discipline to get this accomplished. I ask Congress to get their act together. On our current path/pace, our nation will ruin its economic advantage as the world’s main currency.
Yes, secure the southern border; we don’t have the resources to provide a quality education experience for all, pay the interest, carry on our national debt, take on the financial responsibility of the world or to balance the entitlement programs in the future. The border crisis is the next $2 Trillion-dollar expense that our nation will have over the next 10 years. It is causing additional massive homelessness.
