Housing affordability is an immediate, everyday concern for millions of Americans nationwide, particularly for those who choose to live in densely populated urban areas. However, the issue of affordable housing stems from government-manufactured restrictions on supply, fees, restrictive zoning, and other government-imposed burdens. Before considering a major expansion of the housing choice voucher program, we […]
housing
Fixing the Root Cause Instead of Resorting to Rent Controls
When a family’s household budget is inadequate to pay prevailing prices for rental housing, they are desperate. Blinded by anxiety, these families and their advocates may see rent control as a viable solution. Rent control is an overly simplistic answer that shortchanges families, communities, building owners and municipalities. The State of Oregon is the most […]
Expect More Growth in Rental Housing Supply and Demand
The number of households moving out of their owned home and into rental housing has surprised housing experts. The expected migration of millennials from rental housing into home ownership is taking longer than most of us expected, and new immigrants continue to choose rental housing for economic reasons. Of course, the high prices of today’s […]
Old-School, New-School Sale of Your Home
In the 2008 real estate-linked recession, home values dived, but many prospective buyers were shutout and many consumers were marooned in homes they could not sell. Regulators forced lenders to impose draconian restrictions on qualifying consumers for mortgages. Appraisers were intimidated by regulators into low-balling estimates of home values, infuriating the owners. That led to […]
Another Housing Crisis?
In the wake of the great recession many Americans lost a job and that eroded their financial footing. Constrained income led many to default on their mortgage and borrow from credit card “funds” to cover priorities such as car loan payments. Families who did not regain jobs comparable to the ones they lost were sometimes […]
Will Millennials Opt for Home Ownership?
Speculation about the millennial generation’s aversion to home ownership is being replaced by a much clearer picture. Millennials are those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s and they number almost 90 million. Relatively few own a home, yet. Many regard home ownership as a worthy goal, but perhaps short of being the […]
San Bernardino Sun: Senior Housing Shortage Must be Addressed
There is an old Chinese proverb that states – “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second-best time is today.” A new study by the American Consumer Institute shows that California should heed that advice when it comes to building senior housing to accommodate the skyrocketing aging population the state […]
The Urgency for More Senior Housing — A California Case Study
This ConsumerGram looks at the impending surge in demand for senior housing in California and finds that policymakers need to take steps now to encourage investment by enacting policies that reduce the time and cost of development and make housing more affordable for seniors. Follow the links to read the entire ConsumerGram or ACI’s news release.
More Rungs on Home Ownership Ladder
In the week ending April 18, 2015, the House passed H.R. 650, the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act. H.R. 650 makes helpful adjustments to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulations that govern mortgages commonly used to finance the most affordable homes, i.e. manufactured homes. The House also passed H. R. 685, the Mortgage Choice […]
Spending Habit Can Tee up Another Bailout
Two of the largest US institutions are at risk of going wobbly. Fannie Mae lists $3 trillion and Freddie Mac lists $1.7 trillion in securitized mortgages that they sold to banks usually with guarantees. According to some sources, their impressive performance in recent years may be drawing to a close and their federal masters have […]