Original research on the housing affordability crisis

A better way to produce affordable housing

In 1937, affordable housing was invented. It wouldn't be called "affordable housing" until the 1980s, and lots of housing had been affordable before then, but that was the year that the United States Housing Act introduced income-restricted housing. Later amendments would tie these income restrictions to

Speculating on vacancy decontrol

Sorry it's been forever. New year, new NYC mayor, exciting times to be getting back to writing about housing. Also I finally have my very own ✨chart aesthetic✨ so get ready, dear nerds. As New York City approaches a rent freeze, people continue to be up in arms

How much does luxury building matter?

The results of this one were a big surprise to me. The question I asked is, are rents high because the new housing that's being built is too expensive? There's a lot of attention on how expensive market-rate housing is and how much luxury vs affordable

How to fight big financial landlords

The role of big finance in housing has been getting a lot of attention lately. TikTokers made a big scare and convinced a lot of people that 40% of single-family homes are owned by private equity companies, which is not even close to being true. This turned out to be

Are landlords profiting by keeping units vacant?

Many people, myself included, think that finance has some important role in why the rent is so damn high. There is a growing "housing financialization" literature about this. The idea is that banks, investors, and other financial actors are driving up home and rent prices. This was a

Low-income wage gains are an illusion—blame the rent

Over the last year, many people have been grappling with the question of whether the economy sucks. Or, anyway, whether the economy was in good or bad shape before Trump hit it with a wrecking ball. This remains a question of enormous political importance. After we make it out of

Data Explorer: Rent Burden in the US

The Collapse of Housing Affordability

Housing has gotten much more expensive in the last half century. We can learn a lot about how the rental market works by looking at who has borne that burden.

Welcome / How Much of the Rental Market Can You Afford?

In this newsletter, I'll be sharing my research into the housing affordability crisis. I hope this will be a useful and accessible resource for people trying to understand why the housing market is so broken. I'm going to try to make one to three posts per