Business & Education

The Real Estate We're In

WAMU 88.5

Published August 6, 2018 at 10:06 AM CDT

Homeless advocates protest behind a barricade as people arrive for the Thanksgiving lunch for the homeless outside the Los Angeles Mission in the city's Skid Row during the annual event in Los Angeles, California, on November 25, 2015. LA is home to the nation's largest population of chronically homeless people in the country, where nearly all sleep on the streets, according to figures released on November 19, 2015 by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.

Home prices and rents are skyrocketing, especially in urban areas. Wages are stagnating.

“The national median rent [rose] 20 percent faster than overall inflation in 1990–2016 and the median home price 41 percent faster,” according to the State of the Nation’s Housing report, produced by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

In the U.S., every generation is looking to purchase a house. But there’s a shortage of housing, particularly affordable housing.

“Virtually all of the 88 metropolitan area with data available had more homes for sale in the top third of the market by price than in the bottom third,” says the same Harvard study.

NPR is producing a new series on America’s housing crisis. “Shut Out of the Housing Market” asks why not enough new homes are being built, and unpacks many of those statistics.

What does this mean for young people looking to purchase an entry-level house? It is problem that extends far beyond the big cities, impacting those living in what many consider to be affordable areas.

Kirk Siegler is NPR’s lead reporter on the series, and he’ll tell us more.

Produced by Rupert Gardner.

GUESTS

Kirk Siegler, NPR Correspondent, National Desk; @KirkSiegler

For more, visit https://the1a.org.