How An Antitrust Victory Can Help Biden Win The Sleeper Issue Of The 2024 Election
HuffPost
The Justice Department’s pressure on the National Association of Realtors helped lead to an agreement saving American home buyers billions.
President Joe Biden knows high housing costs are a barrier to his bid for reelection.
“The last I saw, the combination of the inflation, the cost of inflation, all those things, that’s really worrisome to people, with good reason,” he said in a May interview with CNN. “That’s why I’m working very hard to bring the cost of rentals down, to increase the number of homes that are available.”
On Thursday, a coalition of progressive groups sent Biden’s administration a gentle reminder about a powerful argument he can deploy to show he’s already begun to lower homebuying costs for millions of Americans. To boot, it comes at the expense of a politically powerful industry in a way that also summarizes his administration’s approach to the economy.
“President Joe Biden has recognized the need to rein in anticompetitive practices in the housing market as a cornerstone of the administration’s pro-competition agenda,” the progressive groups, led by Demand Progress, wrote in the Thursday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Jonathan Kanter, who leads the department’s antitrust work. “The Antitrust Division’s scrutiny of the [National Association of Realtors’] harmful practices and broader agenda to expand housing opportunities are having a real impact.”
Earlier this year, the Justice Department helped to secure an agreement effectively ending a longstanding practice of American home sales: the 6% sales commission all but guaranteed to real estate agents negotiating home purchases. The agreement was negotiated by private attorneys for home purchasers who alleged the politically powerful National Association of Realtors, which covers most real estate agents in the nation, was violating federal antitrust law.
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