What’s Driving the Affordable Housing Shortage in America?

People in the market for a starter home in this country are in for a tough search, and they will probably have to pay a lot more than the asking price to outbid other buyers. Renting for those families isn’t much better – rents are eating up an ever-larger share of most household budgets. Both of these trends have been underway for several decades in the US. But the collapse of the housing market kicked them into overdrive. Why is that? Why wouldn’t a big shock to the housing market have served to recalibrate housing supply with actual housing needs? New York University sociologist Andrew Ross spent months living amid this housing crisis in Florida as research for his new book, “Sunbelt Blues: The Failure of American Housing.”