Can Housing Be Healed

By Ryan Boyle

Before we started some recent home renovations, neighbors offered advice: stay patient. Construction projects feature weeks that feel like no progress has been made, and days that feel like everything has changed at once.

Conditions in the housing market have felt stuck, awaiting progress. The persistent dislocation in housing is affordability. Potential buyers are excluded by low supply, high prices and high interest rates. Are reforms possible to help more people achieve the dream of owning their homes?

Most home purchases require borrowing, and mortgage rates have remained stubbornly elevated. After a period of abnormally low interest rates, 30-year mortgages climbed up to 7% in 2022, sapping purchase activity ever since. Lower rates could promote affordability, but may also bring more buyers into the market, bidding up prices.