In the media

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Our research is regularly cited in national and local news outlets; below is some of our recent press coverage.

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WGBH

Solutions for more housing? Let apartment buildings have just one stairwell.

It’s a longstanding building code for most buildings with over nine units to have two stairwells, and one with roots in fire safety. But authors of a new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and the design firm Utile say getting rid of the requirement would cut down on construction costs and let developers build on more of the small, unused lots in the Boston area.

Politico

JD Vance says ‘illegal immigrants’ are keeping you from owning your own home

“While immigrants do add to overall housing demand, they cannot be blamed for the recent surge in home prices and rents that took off in 2020 and 2021, as immigration reached its lowest levels in decades due to the pandemic,” said Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

NBC News

What economists say about JD Vance's claim that immigrants drive up housing costs

In general, economists are skeptical that immigrants are the main driver of the current predicament. Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, said that while immigrants do add to overall housing demand, “they cannot be blamed for the recent surge in home prices and rents that took off in 2020 and 2021.” That was when immigration reached its lowest levels in decades because of the pandemic.

CBS News

JD Vance says immigration is to blame for high housing costs. Here's what the experts say.

What is evident, however, is that home prices have surged 53% since January 2020, just prior to the pandemic, pushing many would-be homebuyers out of the market. And with rents soaring 25% over the same time period, half of all renters are now defined as "cost burdened." That means a record share of renters now spend more than 30% of their income on housing, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Boston.com

If looks could thrill: The best home improvements for your dollar

Experts note government or nonprofit programs for home repairs often zero in on energy efficiency or getting a home to basic habitability instead of more cosmetic touches like a kitchen upgrade or curb appeal. This aligns with data that show lower-income households are much more likely to pursue replacement projects than discretionary improvements, said Sophia Wedeen, a senior research analyst at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Marketplace

Mortgage rates are falling. Will it offer buyers any relief?

Daniel McCue, a senior research associate at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, said it is also possible that mortgage rates will fall just enough to lure more buyers into the market, but not more sellers. “A lot of the mortgage holders are still holding mortgages that are pretty far below market,” he said. “Almost 75% of them have an interest rate below five, and one out of every five mortgage holders has an interest rate below three.”

Slate

Democrats Have a Big Strategy to Build More Housing

What can an annual outlay of $100 million (the PRO budget for next year) do to solve a problem as big as a deficit of 3 million homes? “State and local governments look at each other all the time, so those little examples can bear a lot of fruit,” said Chris Herbert, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard and a fan of the program. “There’s not a lot of money out there, but these grants can become an example for other places.”

The Nation

For Harris, Housing Takes Center Stage, but Tenants Are Not the Audience

Severely cost-burdened tenant households (those putting 50 percent or more of their paycheck toward rent) are also at record numbers, increasing in rank by 1.5 million since 2019 and now surpassing 12 million households. This should hardly be a surprise, because while median rents have risen 21 percent in inflation-adjusted terms since 2001, median renter household incomes have risen just 2 percent.

The New York Times

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Tina Smith: Our Solution to the Housing Crisis

Outsourcing development to the private market leaves affordable housing subject to the boom-and-bust cycle of private investment. What’s more, the federal government relinquishes the oversight needed to protect tenants from abusive landlords and racial discrimination. The result is a housing market where corporate landlords make record profits while half of America’s 44 million renters struggle to pay rent.