In the Media

Vulnerable Americans have been hard hit during the post-pandemic years as many government supports ended, including the eviction moratorium. At the same time, housing costs are surging, causing a record number of renters to be cost-burdened, or paying more than 30% of their income on housing, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

There’s tension over how much, if at all, government should subsidize people at high risk of damage from natural disasters. Can subsidies ever be justified? Yes? Then what if the main beneficiaries are wealthy families, who are more likely to buy in scenic areas that produce lots of claims? “There’s not going to be universal consensus on what’s fair and what’s not,” says Steve Koller, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

A reduction in state-backed plans isn't necessarily a sign of progress, says Steve Koller, a postdoctoral fellow in climate and housing at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Riordan Frost at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies said the biggest factor for most people is cost. “Affordability in general has become a nationwide issue, and so I could really see that driving people to move out, especially if they’re trying to purchase a home,” he said.

The average age of first-time home buyers has risen rapidly in many countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Ireland. In the U.S., half of households spent at least 30% of their incomes on rent and utilities in 2022, a record high, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Unable to meet most requirements for a mortgage on a home, immigrants living in the U.S. illegally often rely on extremely affordable rental housing. And multigenerational living is more common due to economic necessity, said Riordan Frost, a senior research analyst with the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. In recent years, he added, members of the millennial generation — not immigrants — have driven the rise in new households, especially during the pandemic. “It’s important to push back against the argument that housing for one group comes at the cost of another,” Frost said.

When it comes to insulating the two enterprises and borrowers from climate-related catastrophe, the Federal Housing Finance Agency — which regulates Fannie and Freddie — has issued only vague guidance. “It came out and I thought, where’s the rest of it?” said Carlos Martín, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

As of earlier this year, the median “all-in” cost of a mortgage payment, property taxes, and insurance was $2,201, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. That’s up a whopping $852 in just the past three years, and JCHS estimates it’s the highest since data first started to be collected over three decades ago.

The biggest bump in housing unaffordability last year was among homeowners who are dealing with a triple whammy: elevated interest rates, extremely high housing costs, and insurance rates that have increased, says Harvard research analyst Peyton Whitney.

Nearly a third of households headed by seniors are cost burdened, meaning more than 30 percent of their income is eaten up by housing costs. That number is growing fast. So is the number of seniors falling into homelessness — a trend expected to continue for decades.