economics

Avian flu gave companies cover to price gouge. Could the attention to lack of housing supply do the same for landlords?

If high home prices and rents are hallmarks of inequality, the actions of the Federal Reserve should give us pause. Its policy interventions have had profound effects on housing prices.

Over the last two decades homeowners and investors have increasingly treated housing as a financial asset, like stocks or bonds. How has this changed the housing market for the worse, and how can we fix it?

The pandemic housing market may be a different beast from the recession market, but the outcomes could be eerily similar.

At one time, the Democratic Party stood for policies that successfully addressed the country’s chronic housing crisis. What changed, and why?

It’s not because they’re stupid. If we want to convince people, we need to stop yelling and start listening.

Union Power | A Clinic Moves To Serve Displaced Clients | On The Horizon-Sweeping Change To Financing Industry Regulation

Because affordable housing doesn’t yield acceptable profits to real estate investors, the only way a substantial amount of it is going to get built is if it’s publicly funded.

Here’s something we don’t talk about enough: developing affordable housing in a tight, high-cost market also increases overall affordability through filtering! Just in the other direction—it trickles up.

A yearlong analysis of 200-plus households suggests that we should add a third leg to the financial security stool along with income and assets: cash flow.

The meager supply of affordable housing is a major contributor to housing’s high cost, yet the policy tools to address the shortfall often seem to worsen the problem. But this is because they ignore the underlying infrastructure and financing to support growth.

Gabriel Metcalf, CEO of SPUR, discusses his new book, “Democratic by Design: How Carsharing, Co-ops, and Community Land Trusts are Reinventing America.”