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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., ascended the Inman Connect stage on Thursday to argue that homeownership is the backbone of the American middle class while making his case to an audience of real estate professionals that, “Realtors are key small business people.”
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Kennedy made the comments while chatting with Inman founder Brad Inman, who quizzed the heir from America’s most famous political dynasty on topics ranging from vaccines to good governance to the war in Ukraine. Midway through the conversation, Kennedy said that when he was a kid, the average home cost $7,000, while the average income was $5,000 a year. The result was that “everyone could get into a home” and that widespread access to equity fueled an explosion of wealth.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (right) onstage at Inman Connect Las Vegas with Brad Inman (left) | Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services
“The American middle class was the greatest economic engine in history,” Kennedy said. “This ferment of economic activity was rooted in homeownership.”
However, Kennedy was critical of changes in the housing market that have pushed homeownership further out of reach for many people.
“We’re going today from a nation of homeowners to a nation of renters,” he said. “And when we do that, we’re going to go from citizens to subjects.”
Near the end of his interview, Kennedy also weighed in on recent antitrust lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors and various companies that have rocked the industry. Though Kennedy said he wasn’t sufficiently versed in the issue to make promises, he said that based on “what I know about it, it seems counter productive.”
“It seems unjust and it…