In the Media

What we’re witnessing is “a major event that should not be shrugged off or ignored,” Don Layton, the former CEO of US mortgage giant Freddie Mac, wrote in a commentary for the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

Alexander Hermann, a senior research analyst at the Joint Center for Housing Studies, said interest rates are at a historic low, which allows homeowners to sell at higher prices without significantly changing buyers’ monthly mortgage payments.

According to a survey of property owners in 10 cities by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, 10% of small landlords and 8% of mid-sized landlords said that they were still owed half or more of their rent by the end of 2020, compared with just 3% of large landlords.

A new report shows that nearly 10% of landlords around the country collected less than half of their rent in 2020. Landlords who owned fewer than six units were most affected.

Less than 4 percent of US homes had basic accessibility features in 2011, the latest available measure, according to JCHS. This puts pressure on grandparents raising children who have a disability, which is roughly a quarter of all grandparents raising children.

Why hasn’t more housing been built? The rising costs of labor and lumber are one reason, according to a recent report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The desire to purchase a home accelerated particularly fast among millennials who are now in their peak home-buying years, explained Alexander Hermann, a senior research analyst with the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

Individuals used to own two-thirds of apartment properties with five to 24 units. But from 2001 to 2015, that share fell to two-fifths, and researchers from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that as large, Wall Street-backed investors purchased the buildings, they raised rents more quickly.

With prices skyrocketing, homeownership is increasingly out of reach for many Black Americans. Is the end in sight and what solutions are possible to help people find a house they can afford?

“After you take into account that they may have these 18 months of payments, and insurance and property tax payments along with it, they’ll have less than 10 percent equity left in their house,” said Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.