Housing

Housing affordability has become a defining economic crisis of the 2020s. Home prices rose roughly 40 percent between 2020 and 2024, driven by pandemic-era demand, rising construction costs, and years of insufficient homebuilding. Rents in major metropolitan areas have outpaced wage growth, leaving millions of Americans spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing — the standard threshold for being cost-burdened. The shortage of affordable homes is estimated at 7 million units for the lowest-income renters, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Homelessness has reached record levels in the United States despite overall economic growth. At the federal level, the primary tools for affordable housing are the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), Section 8 housing vouchers, and Community Development Block Grants — all of which are chronically underfunded relative to need. Local zoning laws — which typically restrict density by requiring single-family homes over apartments — are now widely recognized by economists across the political spectrum as a major contributor to the housing shortage. Several states including California, Minnesota, and Montana have taken steps to legalize more housing types statewide, overriding exclusionary local zoning.