Annotated responses about the soaring cost of housing.
Challenger JD Jordan (left) and incumbent State Senator John Albers (left) exchanging responses about rising housing costs at the recent candidate forum. Photos and videos shot and shared by a Cherokee resident in audience, stabilized and annotated by JD Jordan.
On April 25, the Farm Bureau & the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce hosted a candidate forum at Canton’s historic courthouse. Incumbents and challengers from a variety of races had a chance to introduce themselves to voters and to debate a variety of audience-suggested topics.
Fortunately for the 56, both our incumbent, John Albers, and I were in attendance. And doubly so that someone in the audience captured the full exchange on their phone!
Over the course of the next two weeks, I’ll share the exchanges from this forum, covering:
In addition to simply sharing these videos, I’ve spent time fact-checking each of our statements and unscripted responses. I’ve performed this critique for two reasons:
Honesty and transparency are cornerstones of a healthy constituent experience and critical to establishing and maintaining trust between members of the public and their elected officials (candidates, too!)
To show I’m open to being fact checked, interested in feedback where I might be further informed, and open to the conversations such critiques may inspire.
If you see an errors in my critique or if you know of a data point I haven’t found, please reach out at me at jdjordan@forthe56.com and I’ll do my best to follow-up and—if necessary—make and note any corrections.
Annotated videos
On rising house costs in Georgia.
Each candidate was given 1:30 to answer an audience question asking how they would address the soaring cost of housing and protect home ownership and the American dream. Responses were made in alternative order, with JD Jordan answering first and John Albers answering second.
Annotated transcript
JD Jordan: On housing costs.
So, I have five teenagers and you can feel pity for me, okay? But one of the things we talk about a lot in our home is the challenge that they are going to face—especially when the first one graduates from high school this month—that they're going to face trying to get out on their own.
And we've talked … a number of candidates up here have talked about inflation and I want to go ahead and say it right away: I'm not interested in price fixing or anything like that to control the housing market.
True.
Democrats are often accused of wanting price fixing to rein in housing markets—this is not the case for the vast majority of them. While price fixing can theoretically stabilize prices, those prices are typically higher, less competitive, stretch existing economic inequalities, and remain illegal under federal antitrust laws (FTC).
The housing market is going to go with the ebb and flow and is going to go with demand.
I do think there's a problem with companies coming in and buying an enormous amount of property as investment, which does artificially inflate property prices.
True.
Hedge funds and institutional investors significantly impact housing prices by acquiring large portfolios of single-family homes, driving up costs for regular buyers and renters and making homes less accessible for average families. (Fast Company)
I do think we also have an enormous gap that has emerged over 20 years that, where our legislature has really let us down, in terms of keeping our minimum wages up in line with the cost of the market, right?
True & true.
The last time the Georgia legislature raised our state minimum wage was in 2002 when it was raised from $3.25 to $5.15. (US Department of Labor). At the federal $7.25 minimum wage, a hypothetical 40-hour-a-week fulltime employee would only make a pre-tax income of $15,080 (working 2,080 hours a year). Even before our recent inflationary period, this amount doesn’t afford anyone financial independence.
Our state minimum wage is only $5.25. It's superseded by the federal minimum wage, which is not much better.
True.
Georgia law sets the minimum wage rate at $5.15 per hour —$2.15 for tipped employees!—and is so low that the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act applies, meaning the federal minimum wage supersedes and most employees must earn at least $7.25 per hour (Square).
This is almost what I was making in high school more years ago than I care to admit, right?
True.
In 1995, when I graduated high school in Sandy Springs, the federal minimum wage was $4,25. If this wage had simply risen with inflation, it would equal $8.74, today (National Archives).
So, when my kids want to launch, how do we do that when the standard of jobs, those first jobs that kids get in high school and college, even if they pool up two or three of them, they can't afford to live in Senate District 56.
True.
Even if we limit ourselves tom looking at the Cherokee County segment of SD 56—Woodstock, in particular—the average apartment rent is $1,771—$600 more than the total per-tax income of a minimum wage employee working 40 hours a week! (RentCafe).
Certainly not, you know, in some place that me as their parent would want them to live, right?
True.
The lowest Woodstock rent I could find, at the time of writing, was $840 for 750 sq ft 1 bedroom unit—72% of our hypothetical full-time minimum wage earner’s pre-tax salary (Apartments.com)
And, so, I would address the core issue … which is our minimum wage.
Annotated transcript
John Albers: On housing costs.
I'm a student of history
False.
At least not in any technical sense. As a UGA-trained historian, I take umbrage with this claim. But I will acknowledge that John Albers earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of Louisville. He also graduated from the University of Georgia’s Legislative Leadership Institute and completed the Cybersecurity program at Harvard (Georgia Farm Bureau).
and history will tell you that about four years ago, housing prices were much, much lower than they are today.
True.
In March of 2020, at the damn of the Covid-19 pandemic, the median sale price for a home in Georgia was approximately $250,000. By May of this year, it had risen to $386,600—a $155% increase in just four years (Redfin)!
We are in 45-year high-inflation. Costs have skyrocketed.
True.
Our current inflationary period peaked in May of 2022 at a whopping 8.6%, the highest rate since January 1982 (Trading Economics)! Thankfully, the US inflation rate is down dramatically since 2022 and the US has one of the lowest inflation rates or any developed country recovering from the pandemic (Newsweek).
And they've skyrocketed because what started in Washington DC has filtered it down to the states.
False.
Inflation rates are high—and painful—but anyone telling you there’s only one reason for it isn’t being honest with you. Federal AND state governments play a role, of course, but the Inflation we’re currently experiencing is the result of the global pandemic and global supply-chain disruptions, domestic labor and housing market disruptions, violent conflicts in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza, and—more than any other factor at 53% of inflation—corporate profits (Fortune).
We're feeling it across the board right now
True.
Despite positive economic indicators at the top and bottom of the market—historically high stock values and historically low unemployment—most Americans have a negative perception of the economy at large and their buying power (PBS). There are a lot of reasons for this, but it’s very real.
and it's a shame because it's hurting people from having the American dream and buying that first home.
True.
The Census Bureau released its latest quarterly report for Q1 2024 showing the latest homeownership rate at 65.6%, down 0.1% from Q4 2023 and the lowest rate in two years. Further, In 2000, Georgia had a homeownership rate of 69.9% but that’s fallen to 64.7%. Georgia's dwindling rate of homeownership is the sixth most drastic nationwide (AthensCEO).
We also have some of the highest interest rates that we've had in decades, which is also further impeding that.
False.
Our current 7% interest rates are higher than they were at their 2020 2.7% historic low, but nowhere near their peak in the 80s, at 18.6% (FRED)!
Where is all that stuff set? In the federal government.
Oversimplification.
Perhaps John Albers doesn't undestand the Federal Reserve—it is complex. The federal funds rate is the target interest rate set by the Federal Reserve, an independent central bank established by Congress in 1913. Elements of the bank are appointed by the president and answerable to our Republican-controlled Congress. But, it should be pointed out, interest rates are raised to rein in inflation, not to contribute to it (Federal Reserve).
So, here in Georgia, we're constantly trying to help Georgians in order to overcome these obstacles.
It is true that we have large hedge funds from New York and California who are buying up some of our real estate right here in Cherokee County.
True.
Of the top ten real-estate hedge funds, seven are from New York and California (Hedgelists).
In fact, there was a move by several people from the left, downtown, to take away local control from some of our cities and counties to have more folks come in from the outside and build more multifamily units.
Unclear.
Since John Albers didn’t site a specific bill, I haven’t been able to find any recent legislation that matches this description. If you have information about this annotation, please email me at jdjordan@forthe56.com. But since about half of the 56’s residents moved here from outside the state—and since multifamily housing would solve a variety of housing problems—it’s unclear what John Albers’ is trying to say.
And that's not the way Cherokee County is going to operate.
It's not up to him.
Since John Albers is neither a county nor municipal official in Cherokee, it’s not his place to make this claim unless he’s planning more legislative overreach from the State Senate.
I have trust and faith in each one of the city council members
Unclear.
Which city? And what about the mayors? This forum took place in Canton, a city almost entirely outside SD 56, so should we assume he means Woodstock? Holly Springs? Perhaps Roswell or Mountain Park? As is often the case, it’s unclear what John Albers means.
and our county commissioners and all the folks that serve here and the best government is the one that is closest to the people.
True.
Though I would add that actually talking to and interacting with people is what makes local politics work—something John Albers should try doing sometime.
And we will trust them to make the decision moving forward and make sure we keep government out of the way to do the right thing.
False.
John Albers is a champion of big-government and legislative overreach in the Georgia legislature. I’d LOVE it if government got out of the way. Sadly, though, this comment flies in the face of his record. I hope you’ll take some time to review my commitment to combatting legislative overreach in Georgia.
Thank you.
JD JORDAN FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 56
For anyone in East Cobb, Roswell, or Woodstock alarmed by the state’s escalating attacks on our bodies, our families, our doctors’ offices, our classrooms and libraries, even our polling places, I’m running for state senate district 56 to fight for our freedoms and to deliver a better future for everyone in Georgia.
And unlike my opponent who’s spent 14 years rolling back our freedoms, failing to safeguard our kids, and gerrymandered his district to stay in office, I promise to bring everyone in the 56—regardless of ideology—the best possible constituent experience so you feel heard, valued, and supported. As we all deserve to be.
I’m running for the 56. Let’s make a better Georgia for all of us.
—
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Jordan For Georgia, LLC
10800 Alpharetta Hwy Ste 208 #629
Roswell, GA 30076-1467
jdjordan@forthe56.com
706.804.0456
