Virginians Await Youngkin's Housing Plan
The state of Virginia shocked the entire nation last November when they elected Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin to be the Governor, over the much more popular Democratic candidate. The reason it shocked so many people is that the Northern Virginia area (NOVA) has a liberal population that dwarfs the rest of the state, which has led to Virginia being a reliably blue state since the early 2000s. The corporate media in America claims that 'white supremacy' and 'racism' are the reasons that Virginians voted for Youngkin. However, when people poll Virginians and ask them the reason they voted for Youngkin, the number-one answer is that they're concerned about the economy. One of the things the average Virginian is most worried about is the housing market; the fact that home prices are on the rise while the supply of available homes is on the decline.
People can understand, of course, that 'We're worried about where we're going to live' isn't as sensational a story as 'I'm a racist,' and that's why the corporate press decides to gaslight people despite millions of Virginians screaming their actual reasons for voting. The fact is that the corporate press doesn't want to shine a light on a housing market that's basically in horrible shape, worse than it was in 2008 in many respects. Houses are few and far between, even for qualified buyers, and they don't exist at all for the average person who doesn't have a lot of income and who cannot get a huge mortgage from a bank.
However, despite the fact that Glenn Youngkin was voted into office based on his economic platform, Virginians are still waiting and wondering what their new Governor is going to do about the budding housing crisis in the state. To date, the Governor hasn't uttered a single word about the housing situation, and there are no policy plans in the works. This is very worrying for Virginians, and rightfully so.
Not Everything is the Hamptons
The Hampton area of Virginia is one of the wealthiest in the state, and so when the media covers any issues of housing in the state, they of course focus on this area. They can't just have rich people being slightly inconvenienced by higher prices, of course. This unfortunately seems to be Youngkin's area of focus to a large extent, at least insofar as it relates to schools and economic policies. The reality, however, is that Virginia is a whole lot larger than just the Hampton reason. Though like the Hamptons of the northeast, politicians seem to focus only on where the money is at, with some lip service paid to poorer areas.
The area of the Shenandoah Valley, which is considered the Appalachia cultural region, is one of the poorest areas in the nation. People can barely afford homes at 2003 prices, much less 2022 prices, and they're suffering now. Youngkin, however, has not even visited this region, has not spoken about it, and appears to have no legislation in the works to address the extreme poverty in this area. Counties like Warren, Page, Augusta and others are seemingly left out of the loop.
High Rent and No Construction
Experts claim that the issues with Virginia's housing are twofold: Rent is far too high for people who are renting apartments, homes and trailers; and there is no new construction underway. VIrginia, of course, is controlled entirely by Democratic policies, despite the fact that a Republican Governor was recently elected. Youngkin passed a policy that simply stated that mask policies were up to individual choices from businesses and schools, and the left-wing Virginia court system said that this was illegal and is now forcing every business and school to mandate masks.
So, of course, when it comes to opening up the floodgates on the construction of new homes, a bunch of liberal judges and council members who live in DC are perfectly content to tell Virginians 'No, you cannot build new homes,' as they live their lives elsewhere. This is a huge problem in Virginia that is pretty much unique to Virginia; people from outside of the state controlling the state due to their proximity. These regulations have forced tens of thousands of Virginians out of the housing market, and as a result Virginia's homeless population is on the steep rise, which will just be blamed on Youngkin in the coming months.
To date, there are no real plans to address Virginia's housing issues, which can only mean that things will get a lot worse for residents of the state.