Travis Plunkett from The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Housing Policy Initiative analyzed current
housing market challenges and potential policy solutions.
Current Housing Market Challenges
Plunkett highlighted several urgent issues plaguing the housing sector, starting with skyrocketing housing costs:
- Rent Burden: Half of renters in the United States spend more than 30% of their income on rent, with a quarter spending over 50%.
- Rising Prices: The U.S. median rent has reached $1,400, and the median home price is $420,000, both all-time highs.
- Housing Shortage: The country faces a shortage of 4 to 7 million homes, contributing to these high costs.
Impact of Supply Shortages
Plunkett emphasized that housing market supply shortages lead to rapid rent increases:
Homelessness and Housing Costs
Plunkett also noted the correlation between rising housing costs and homelessness, as areas with significant rent growth have experienced increases in homelessness rates:
Policy Solutions and Their Effectiveness
To address these challenges, Plunkett outlined several policy solutions that have proven effective in various jurisdictions.
- Increasing Housing Supply: Plunkett underscored that increasing housing supply has been shown to stabilize or even reduce rent growth. He highlighted cities such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, and New Rochelle, New York, which added more housing units and experienced slower rent growth than the national average. Plunkett also highlighted that zoning reforms allowing more multi-family housing have successfully promoted housing growth and mitigated rent increases.
- Building Code Reforms: Plunkett highlighted states such as Washington, Oregon, and California, which have enacted reforms to enable smaller multi-family buildings, including legalizing micro-units and co-housing. He also pointed to new laws passed in Hawaii, allowing the conversion of offices to dormitory-style or co-living spaces.
- Manufactured Homes: Manufactured housing is another affordable housing option. Plunkett noted that these homes are now considered similar in quality to site-built homes, and many models are net-zero ready. He pointed to states like Maine, which now allow manufactured housing anywhere site-built homes are permitted – providing a flexible and cost-effective housing solution.
Public Support for Housing Reforms
As demonstrated by Pew surveys, Plunkett noted strong public support for housing reforms. A significant majority of Americans favor various land-use reforms to enable more housing. These include allowing more apartments near transit, offices, and existing residential areas and simplifying permitting processes. Plunkett maintained that widespread public support creates a favorable environment for implementing these policies.
Further information, articles, and resources can be found at the The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Housing Policy Initiative website.