The Roots of the Modern Housing Crisis

Americans today face a dual crisis: rising rents and increasingly unaffordable housing markets. The housing crisis, far from being over, has metastasized. This new set of problems is confounding economists, who are left to view the situation through the narrow lens of mainstream orthodoxy -- one tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New politics 2016-01, Vol.15 (4), p.40
Main Author: Posey, Sean
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affordable housing
Bush, George W
Community development
Community trusts
Conversation
Corporations
Crises
Down payments
Economists
Home ownership
Homeowners
Households
Housing
Housing market
Land trusts
Low income groups
Minimum wage
Recessions
Rentals
Rents
Wages & salaries
Workers
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Summary:Americans today face a dual crisis: rising rents and increasingly unaffordable housing markets. The housing crisis, far from being over, has metastasized. This new set of problems is confounding economists, who are left to view the situation through the narrow lens of mainstream orthodoxy -- one that is highly colored by the ever-present notion of the American (Delusion) Dream. If the country is to deal with this new normal, it must embrace new economic tools and question the veracity of a system that swings from one crisis to the next -- a system that is proving incapable of providing individuals and families with affordable housing, a basic need. It's time to bring the conversation around to systems change -- starting at the local level with tools such as land trusts and community development corporations. Affordable housing should be viewed as a basic right, one enshrined at the center of an American reality -- not an America Dream.
ISSN:0028-6494