Owning your own home means more than a roof over your head. It means financial security, stability and that warm feeling of accomplishment washing over you as you open the door on your first home and cross into a new world of possibilities.
Homeownership has long been defined as the American dream. It’s the reason so many of our ancestors risked a trip across the Atlantic or trekked hundreds of miles through the wilderness for the chance at staking a claim out west.
Currently, home ownership has dropped to the lowest rate in more than 50 years and first-time buyers are the oldest they’ve ever been.
It’s not just the raw number of houses being built that is driving the current housing crisis. It's also about what types of houses are being built, which plays a major role in determining how effective the homes are at actually addressing the issue.
Zoning meetings across the country have been met with significant protests whenever new affordable housing developments are proposed in more affluent areas.
Building affordable housing would do so much for solving this housing crisis. But it matters where this new housing is built.
Often, the areas where affordable housing are built are far from reliable services and economic opportunity. This can reinforce the issues that keep people from being able to afford housing in the first place.
Why is this the case and how can the issue of lack of opportunity near housing be rectified?
We dig deep and look for answers to these questions related to supply and demand on this edition of "Untangled."
Guests:
- Vincent Squillace, President at VJS Public Sector Consulting
- Richard Kahlenberg, author of Excluded: How Snob Zoning, Nimbyism, and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See
- Jason Reece, PhD, Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning Section, The Ohio State University
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