A state tax credit for buying new homes in CA is so wrong on so many fronts, I don’t know where to begin.
For one thing it helps the rich(er) at the expense of all taxpayers. Only the upper 1/2 or 1/4 of income earnings are buying new homes, generally speaking. Renters especially should be incensed at this subsidy to homebuyers and homebuilders.
And why should this bankrupt state, bleeding jobs, businesses, and middle-class taxpayers be handing out subsidies at all?
The tax credit even operates at cross-purposes to our professed goals. While the politicians claim to want to help underwater homeowners, they subsidize more new homebuilding, thus adding to supply and keeping prices from rising eventually due to natural market forces. The solution to the overbuilding and glut of empty houses is to slow building for a while.
