Should local governments reconsider “point-of-sale” ordinances in dismal housing market?
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—It’s tough enough to sell a house with home sales in the Twin Cities undergoing the biggest decline in the country, down 42 percent in July year to year. Yet some local governments make it even tougher for homeowners by imposing some of the country’s most onerous before-sale residential inspection ordinances, adding to the cost and red tape of buying and selling a house at the worst possible time. Currently, fourteen metro-area municipalities have so-called “point-of-sale” ordinances in place, requiring home sellers to pay for a city inspection prior to selling their property. (In some cases, the ordinances are referred to as “time-of-sale” and “truth in housing” inspections.) In fact, in many cases, sellers are required to pay for the inspection before being permitted toput their homeup for sale.These inspections are in addition to, not in lieu of, the private inspections for which home buyers routinely pay $300 or more. That’s because, as several cities readily admit,
