Affordable housing and the cost of living continue to be top economic outlook issues for the future of Arizona’s prosperity, and onerous regulations are pushing the dream of home ownership further and further away for many young people.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach” report, Arizona is the 14th priciest state to rent a modest one-bedroom apartment, preventing renters from gaining upward mobility in the housing market because the average home price is just under $450,000.
Arizona is not alone. Nationally, Americans ranked housing as one of their top financial worries. The average age of first-time homebuyers has reached an all-time high of 38 years old. In 1991, it was 28 years old. A recent report from the Commerce Department showed that permitting for new single-family housing construction has fallen to a two-year low nationally.
In Arizona, municipal regulatory hurdles and excessive permitting issues have stifled our state’s housing supply amid our population growth. As a mother of two 20-something-year-olds, I want my children to have a chance at first-time homeownership, so making housing affordable is a priority for me. Like other pragmatic parents, I don’t want to get on an airplane to visit my grandchildren.
Sadly, we are losing an entire generation of homebuyers who are being priced out of the market due to overregulation and the lack of housing options. This is largely due to the fact that local municipal permitting departments have too much control over homeowners’ decisions.
In Arizona, our state legislature’s continued inaction will slowly affect job growth if we can’t solve the affordable housing issue. In 2022, the Arizona legislature’s housing supply study committee released recommendations that evolved into a bill I sponsored, Senate Bill 1229, known as the Arizona Starter Homes Act. This bill will help mitigate Arizona’s more than 270,000-unit housing deficit by reducing regulatory burdens, giving first-time homebuyers a lifeline to starter homes while deregulating local zoning jurisdictions.
Decreasing regulation at the local level will spur development. If we don’t legalize smaller homes on smaller lots, there will be an exodus to other states that offer more affordable housing options for first-time homebuyers.
Unfortunately, previous generations are locking out the next generation of first-time home buyers with their “not in my backyard” mentality. These people already have a piece of the American dream. Many have helped their own children with down payments on their first home, ensuring their heirs can start generating wealth, but they don’t want the same for their neighbors’ children.
People and groups opposed to SB 1229 support price controls and California-style government subsidies that have failed to achieve noticeable positive outcomes over the past several decades. More importantly, they already own a home and don’t want these smaller homes on smaller lots built near them.
But without these new homes, the American dream of homeownership will continue to be out of reach for teachers, first responders, service workers, and the middle class. Property has become so heavily regulated that we are pushing generations out of ownership and into government housing assistance programs when we should be looking toward the free market for a solution.
No substantive housing deregulation bills have passed since I was first elected. Each session, highly compensated, taxpayer-funded contract lobbyists, such as the League of Cities and Towns, which represents the city’s central planners, choose to protect unelected bureaucrats’ livelihoods over taxpayers.
The league lobbies legislators to maintain the status quo by throwing money at the housing crisis through government subsidies and price controls. But more government programs will not solve the root of the central planning problem. The cornerstone of the future of homeownership has fallen to the demise of this gaggle of taxpayer-funded lobbyists. I have long supported preemption bills to rein in our cities and counties, which is what the Starter Homes Act is trying to accomplish.
Last month, Tucker Carlson addressed a student action summit promoting the promise of home ownership so the next generation could afford to buy a house and start having families. Carlson said this is a national emergency and “it’s especially bad that young people can’t afford homes. They can’t have a bunch of kids living in an apartment.” That same week, Charlie Kirk discussed the same topic with Fox News Digital, saying the “biggest threat to the Republican Party in 2028 is if we do not deliver on our promises of ownership for the next generation.”
Regretfully, Kirk’s very own 501(c)(4), Turning Point Action, and its Arizona-based employees advocated against passing SB 1229. TPA’s apt online description of the bill says the “Arizona Starter Homes Act aims to reduce housing restrictions and provide more flexibility for home buyers and developers in municipalities with over 70,000 residents. The bill prevents municipalities from imposing certain design, size, and feature restrictions on single-family homes, such as mandating homeowners’ associations, requiring specific screening or fence designs, or establishing overly restrictive lot sizes, home dimensions, or building setbacks.” It sounds like the TPA employee who wrote this description is a fan of our Constitution’s Fifth and 14th amendments.
I will not turn my back on the next generation. For a conservative activist group to push for constitutional principles and then advocate against private property rights is just baffling. Our state’s very own Republican national committeeman and committeewoman also opposed bringing in the next generation of Republican voters. The committeewoman even promoted her video with a MAGA-style “Make Housing Affordable Again” placard, speaking out firmly against 1229.
Meanwhile, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 15, the state’s version of the starter homes bill. Texans rejoiced as their legislators overrode local city zoning to allow smaller homes on smaller lots. The Lone Star State’s slogan, “Don’t Mess with Texas,” comes to mind, protecting private property rights, while Arizona’s starter home sales continue to rise and housing affordability continues to decline.
If our Founding Fathers were alive today, they would be shocked to see the labyrinth of central planners involved in each step of the home-building approval process.
THE SENATE TRIES TO DO WHAT THE FED CANNOT: SOLVE THE HOUSING CRISIS
Arizona’s municipalities are imposing specific design standards on certain single-family homes and even mandating home builders to create homeowner associations to get approval to build homes. When a first-time homebuyer wants to build their dream home, a bureaucrat in the local municipal planning department shouldn’t have the power to dictate the type of roof, color of the home, or whether you want a garage.
As a lifelong free-market conservative, I believe in free enterprise and fighting against the same local tyrants who pushed for excessive COVID-19 restrictions. We owe it to our grandchildren to champion individual liberties and private property rights. I won’t ever give lip service to addressing a policy problem, but I hope Kirk will give my office a call so we can forge a plan to welcome the next generation of homeowners.
Shawnna Bolick is a member of the Arizona State Senate.