/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

COVID supply shortages, stimulus, and work freezes are what drove the global housing crisis. However it's not clear what's causing the prices to stick, and even continue to get worse, or what's to be done. "Crisis is the mother of intervention" but there seems to be a relative dearth of actual policy directed at the problem. Have heard some of rezoning to curb McMansion construction (directing scarce resources to more economical construction efforts), and of course Singapore was able to weather the storm without cost escalations, these are the exception that proves the rule. If all we can find is such meager evidence of effort there must truly be little being done.

>96,000 new affordable homes every day to house the estimated 3 billion people who will need access to adequate housing by 2030, UN-Habitat says. [^1]
>In a study of 200 cities globally, 90% were found to be unaffordable to live in, with the average home costing more than three times the average income. [^1]

>For renters making under $30,000 — who already faced the most severe struggle to afford housing — Airgood-Obrycki "didn't think it could possibly get that much higher." But the report found it did nudge up, to an all-time high of 83% who are cost-burdened. She says the amount of money they have left over for all other household expenses has plummeted by nearly half, to just $310 a month. [^2]

>As of early 2025, home prices are up 60 percent nationwide since 2019 and still rising at a rate of 3.9 percent year over year. Consequently, the median existing single-family home price hit a new high of $412,500 in 2024. “This is a shocking five times the median household income,” says Daniel McCue, a Senior Research Associate at the Center. “This is also significantly above the price-to-income ratio of 3 that has traditionally been considered affordable.” As prices rose, existing home sales dropped to a 30-year low. [^3]

:[^1] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/06/how-to-fix-global-housing-crisis/
:[^2] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/25/a-look-at-the-state-of-affordable-housing-in-the-us/
:[^3] https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/press-releases/new-report-highlights-unease-housing-market-amid-worsening-affordability-crisis