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Cardone Capital CEO Grant Cardone slammed Vice President Kamala Harris’ housing policies in two Fox Business interviews over the past week, calling the Democratic presidential nominee “financially illiterate” for proposing $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-generation homebuyers and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.
“[Vice President] Kamala Harris is either financially illiterate, or she believes her audience is,” Cardone said during an interview on Monday, the first day of the Democratic National Convention. “This is called come-on marketing. The $25,000 credit is a come-on; it will not happen. The $6,000 child credit requires you to have two kids in the same year, that’s a come-on.”
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[Editor’s note: Harris’ proposed change to the Child Tax Credit does not require households to have two children in the same year; parents will get the $6,000 credit for the year their child is born. The current CTC is $2,000 per child.]
“It’s typically used as a bait-and-switch, some kind of offer that exaggerates, that has hidden costs, exaggerated claims,” he added. “And she is, Kamala Harris is the come-on queen now, that should be her new title. What’s required for a first-time homeowner? I know you told our producers earlier that it takes a lot more than $25,000.”
Cardone said the typical homebuyer’s down payment is $35,000 — $10,000 short of what Harris is proposing. Once rising home insurance, homeowners association and property tax costs are figured in, he said, Harris’ down payment assistance program will barely make a dent in the pockets of homebuyers. He also noted homebuilders are already giving sizeable credits to homebuyers, making government assistance unnecessary.
“Yeah, look, $25,000 credits are already being delivered by builders, by the way,” he said. “So the government doesn’t need to do this; the builder is willing to do it today.”
In another interview with Fox reporter Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria,” Cardone criticized Harris’ housing and economic policies, saying that her plan to increase corporate taxes and taxes for high-wealth Americans will tank the markets in Democratic-led states.
“Well, all we know is that she will continue to do what she’s done her entire career, which is more regulations, higher taxes, and allow property owners to be coalesced with a new property, and those that use the property continue to have more and more flexibility with whether they pay their rent or not,” he said.
Cardone predicted corporations and high-wealth Americans would run to Texas, Florida and other tax-friendly, Republican-led states if Harris is elected.
“If you go to Florida or Texas, those are going to be beneficiaries of a Harris win. If she wins, they will be massive beneficiaries,” he said. “Arizona, Florida, for sure Texas [and] the Carolinas will be beneficiaries because they protect the property owner.”
“If Donald Trump wins, it will be a beneficiary,” he added. “Everybody that owns property around the country will benefit because he’ll loosen the regulations, lower the taxes, and put some predictability in there for property owners.”
Housing policies have taken center stage at Harris and Trump’s latest round of campaign and rally appearances. In a recent National Association of Home Builders survey, 77 percent of respondents said the U.S. is in the midst of a worsening affordability crisis. Eighty percent of respondents said their local officials need to do more to fix the issue, while 51 percent said the federal government needs to enact more national-level housing affordability measures.
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Inman published an explainer on Harris, Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s housing policies, which includes information on Harris’ $25,000 down payment assistance plan and $40 billion innovation fund, Trump’s vision of building freedom cities and relocating unhoused Americans into tent cities, and RFK Jr.’s plan to restrict institutional homebuyers and offer 3 percent mortgage rates through government-backed bonds.
Election years often yield increased conversations from voters about moving to another country or a state that aligns with their political leanings, and Redfin’s latest election-focused research shows 2024 will be no different.
California lost a net 341,866 residents to other states in 2022, with a sizeable chunk deciding to relocate to Nevada (48,836) and Arizona (74,157). Since that migration wave, Nevada and Arizona, have seen the number of registered Independents and Republicans rise. On the other hand, increased migration from Washington, D.C., and New York likely flipped Georgia blue in 2020.
“Four years ago, the pandemic supercharged a trend that has reshaped the national housing market: People have been leaving expensive, coastal, liberal places like New York and California for affordable, inland, politically moderate places like Arizona and Nevada,” Redfin Senior Economist Elijah de la Campa said.
“While a lot of people were simply moving to where they could afford a home, some sought a place where they fit in better politically. While this self-sorting can help explain the voter registration trends, it’s more likely that a lot of Arizonans and Nevadans have been feeling very disillusioned by their political choices.”
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