Ah, a government and their lust to spend money is never quenched.

Facing lower property taxes and declining prices, the state of Massachusetts has proudly borrowed 1,270,000,000 dollars to buy new homes for the housing commission and update previously existing housing stock. All this for affordable housing across a state where housing is becoming more affordable by the day.

Let’s break this down a bit. Say even in expensive Massachusetts lower end housing will go for $150,000. Let’s deduct 10 percent for overhead, obviously low for government by a longshot but 127 million would cover a private enterprise very nicely spending this money. You still would end up with over 7,600 new homes for those needing help before any rent is paid. That means you could buy and give outright homes to those families.

But the government will charge them rent at below market rates, lets say 800 a month? So they would have 73 million coming in. With a 10 percent overhead they could buy another 450 homes a year. With that number growing as more inventory came on line.

What makes me think at the end of this whole process less than 2,000 residences get added to the inventory of affordable housing in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts will borrow as much as $1.27 billion over the next five years to make housing more affordable across the state. Governor Deval Patrick signed the state’s biggest-ever housing bond authorization bill in a ceremony yesterday at an affordable housing complex in Allston. The legislation gives the state permission to borrow the money over five years. The bonding authority includes $500 million to update state-owned public housing developments. Another $220 million will support the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The rest of the bonding authority will be spread across other housing programs. The Boston Globe

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