Real Estate IQ’s Post

Americans are facing an intense housing crisis, with half of all renters dedicating 30% of their income just to cover rent. Soaring prices, dwindling vacancy rates, and a strained supply are driving the crisis to new heights. While local efforts like Mill Valley’s affordable housing project and New York’s subsidies offer some hope, they barely scratch the surface. Uncover how these initiatives and broader market trends are shaping the future of housing in the US. Click to read more on The Hype Economy. #HousingCrisis #RentalMarket #AffordableHousing #RealEstate #USHousing #RentStruggles #MarketTrends #HousingAffordability

Why are we frustrated with the housing market? : "Middle-income people like teachers, fire fighters, police or journalists, can’t afford homes or rental properties near where they work." “A lot of people trace the root of this situation back to the global financial crisis in 2008. That really slowed down housing construction, and it hasn’t fully recovered.” Then COVID made things worse. Prior to the Great Recession, developers were putting up an average of 2 million homes a year. Builders now are starting roughly 1.1 million units, which experts say is well below the 1.6 million necessary to stay abreast of population growth. That means the country’s housing gap is now between 1.5 and 5.5 million units."

https://lnkd.in/gdbj-asT Key takeaways from this article being: 1)If we must sprawl (and let’s face it, it ain’t slowing down) then so too must our transport (and community) infrastructure to allow residents to remain efficiently connected with the rest of society. 2)If the push for more high-density rentals in well-located areas is to have the desired impact on the housing crisis, these need to be affordable AND desirable (that doesn’t need to be an oxymoron). 3) Governments and the housing market need to stop feeding the narrative that renters are second-class citizens, on their way to (the increasingly out of reach) home ownership. We need to see decades-long lease agreement security to allow communities to really grow. Something everyone benefits from. The short-term, musical chairs life of a renter is not as fun as it looks. Particularly when you add in school catchment requirements and having to update Santa with your new address every time you move…

Yesterday, Minister for Housing, Deputy Sam Mézec signed a Ministerial Order to change the First Time Buyers Guidance to make it easier for people who own a small flat to regain their First Time Buyer status when they want to buy a bigger home so they can start a family. Speaking about the change, the minister said: "Previously, anyone who wanted to regain FTB status would have to go through a bureaucratic procedure and formally ask the Housing Minister's permission. "Now this will be managed directly by the government's Housing Advice Service, who will deal with applications within 5 working days. This will help give prospective buyers confidence to put in offers to buy a family home. "It might sound counter intuitive, but allowing people to still count as first time buyers when they buy their second home can be beneficial. It helps free up smaller homes for genuine first time buyers, and helps people who otherwise couldn't afford to upsize to get that opportunity. "There are lots of "first time buyer" restricted homes on the market for prices which genuine first time buyers would never be able to afford unless they were extremely well off. I have seen some on the market for almost £800k! This minor change will help give working families on slightly lower incomes a fighting chance. "I want younger Islanders to believe that Jersey is a place where they can have confidence they can live a prosperous life and start a family. Helping Islanders into homeownership is a core part of this mission."

Housing took on a new role in the U.S. after World War II because people started viewing housing as a financial product. The widespread adoption of long-term mortgages and the prominence of single-family housing changed a lot more than just the homes people live in. That’s why Charles Marohn of Strong Towns wants local governments to get more involved in innovating and financing new kinds of housing products. “The more housing we build becomes abstracted from the people who live in it, the more it morphs into a financial product, the less responsive it becomes to … what people are asking for and need,” he said. Marohn suggests local governments can alleviate the housing crunch by reducing regulations on creating simple starter homes like backyard cottages, making single-family homes into duplexes or adding accessory apartments.

U.S. housing costs are out of control. The median home for sale was rarely more than four times the median household income throughout the 1980s and 1990s. But by 2022, it had risen to nearly six times. Renters have not fared better. In 1980, around one third of renters were cost burdened, meaning they spent 30 percent or more of their income on housing. Fully half of renters are cost burdened today.  The main reason housing is too expensive is that we don’t build nearly enough of it. https://lnkd.in/gWX5uDA4

𝟏 𝐢𝐧 𝟓 𝐔𝐊 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭. To effectively address the housing crisis, 𝐔𝐊 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬. There will need to be a blend of both short and long-term measures aimed at making rentals more affordable. #RentalHousing #HousingPolicy #HousingCrisis #AffordableRent

This is a very informative piece by Alec M. that shines a light on the negative implications of of the Administration's rent cap proposal. Not only will this short-sighted plan fuel the housing supply shortage, but it would also disproportionately impact renters who would be paying more out of their own pockets to make up for the lost income of their landlords. We don’t need band-aid policies like rent caps to solve our housing crisis. We need long-term solutions to increase available housing supply and relieve Americans of the burden of high housing costs. https://lnkd.in/ewQahu9j

If you're looking to understand housing affordability and availability in Indiana, this IBR article has you covered. All the things like household formation, escalation in rent and house prices (note: house prices have risen more than rent!), housing unit shortfalls, interest rates, and more. Definitely worth a read. Note that it looks at Indiana statewide so no local analysis but it's still a worth a click.

#Renters Rejoice! #Housingaffordability for the #MissingMiddle - new paper by Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies The option to #ageinplace shouldn’t just be for homeowners - & now state and local governments have adopted policies and programs to explicitly address the needs of middle-income renters. Sure - by definition, middle income renters have more resources than lower income renters, but isn't there a danger in focusing only on the inequities and struggles of lower income renters at the expense of addressing the legitimate needs of a cost-burdend "at risk" majority that is typically left out of government assistance programs? READ MORE about 11 state and local programs that are explicitly motivated by Missing Middle housing needs: https://lnkd.in/eRF-h8MP #aginginplace #customizedaging #modifyormove #universaldesign #seniorservices #naipc #accessibility #homeownership #sharingresources #AgeFriendly #Agingstudies