Locked Out of the Dream: Regulation Making Homes Unaffordable Around the World
The first in a two-part series on the global housing crisis.
Next to inflation, Americans ranked housing as their top financial worry in a Gallup survey last May. It’s only gotten worse. January home sales were down 5% from last year’s dismal numbers. Record numbers of first-time buyers are stuck on the sidelines as housing affordability stands at the lowest level ever recorded, while one in three Americans now spend over 30% of their income on mortgage or rent.
The housing crisis is not just an American problem, but a global phenomenon that hits the middle and working classes the hardest. Studies of the Canadian, British, European, and East Asian markets have also found that housing prices have risen far faster than household incomes and inflation. A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development concluded that “housing has been the main driver of rising middle-class expenditure.” In prosperous and communitarian Switzerland, Zurich studios sell for well over $1 million, and small houses even more, making downpayments unaffordable to affluent people despite the overwhelming financial advantages to homeowners.
Underlying the plight of home buyers worldwide is a sometimes overlooked but profound influence – the spread of restrictive land-use regulations. It’s reshaping political and economic alignments in ways that may further destabilize the social order. Home ownership is strongly correlated with positive social indicators, and as renting grows twice as quickly as buying, this trend poses a threat to Western democracy by deepening economic inequality, depressing demographic vitality, and undermining the upward mobility that has driven Western progress for the past century.
Economic Dynamism
AI and the Future of Society and Economy
Large language and generative AI models like ChatGPT are the equivalent of the first automobiles: fun to play with, somewhat unreliable, and maybe a little dangerous. But over time, the lesson for will be clear: Who Learns Fastest, Wins.
Automated Detection of Emotion in Central Bank Communication: A Warning
Can LLMs help us better understand the role of emotion in central bank communication?
Students from China Are Essential for America
An appropriately curated student visa policy in vital research fields like AI and quantum can combine careful risk management with common sense. The benefits to the U.S. will last for generations.
Firm Investment and the User Cost of Capital: New U.S. Corporate Tax Reform Evidence
This working paper analyzes the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to examine how corporate tax reform impacts rates of investment.
.webp)
Free Markets, Economic Growth, and the Restoration of Civic Culture
It is cooperation, not oppression, that is so deeply embedded in our way of life.
