All Research
Op-Ed
Don’t Tax the Public Housing Poor Like They’re Rich
…Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke, the first black Republican since Reconstruction. In 1969, he responded to a crisis at one of the most notoriously dilapidated public housing projects, the 33 high-rises…
Report
Closing Detroit’s Appraisal Gap: A Market-Based Strategy to Revive Vacant Neighborhoods—Lessons for Struggling Cities Across the Nation
Detroit has experienced population decline of nearly two-thirds since 1950 and continues to have a massive vacant residential lot problem. The AEI Housing Center estimates that Detroit has 134,000 vacant…
Article
Capital Gains Rules on Home Sales and Senior Homeowner Lock In
Would ending the capital gains lock-in for senior homeowners free up larger homes for families? Summary: For senior homeowners, removing the cap entirely or retroactively inflation adjusting the current caps…
Report
Median First-Time Homebuyer Age at 34 Years in 2025, Little Changed from 2024
Note: Going forward, quarterly updates will be released of median and average first-time homebuyer age data. The median and average ages for first-time buyers obtaining mortgage loans in calendar year…
Op-Ed
Washington, Not Wall Street, Is the Real Housing Problem
…through the GSEs and make it easier to build the homes working families need. Edward Pinto is a resident fellow and director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center, where…
Report
Rent Control: A Proven Way to Make Housing Scarce and Expensive
Economists from across the political spectrum agree that even modest rent controls would not help middle-income Americans. This consensus reflects decades of research and examples across the U.S. and around the world….
Working Paper
The Philadelphia Story: The Impact of the 2000 Tax Abatement Program on Philadelphia’s Revival
Abstract This paper evaluates the effects of Philadelphia’s 2000 residential property tax abatement, which exempted improvement values on newly constructed or substantially renovated properties, on housing markets, neighborhood reinvestment, and…
Op-Ed
American Housing Needs More Institutional Investors
This op-ed was first published by Real Clear Markets. You can read the full piece here. President Trump’s Executive Order to ban institutional investors from purchasing single family homes gets the equation backward. The…
Testimony
Congressional Testimony: Unlocking Capital to Save the American Dream
…Committee Hearing Title: “Housing Affordability: Saving the American Dream.” January 22, 2026 Edward Pinto, Senior fellow and Co-Director of the AEI Housing Center The views expressed herein are those of…
Article
President Trump and Institutional Investors in Single-Family Rentals
President Trump has expressed understandable concern with the state of the single-family housing market that he inherited a year ago. During the Biden administration, home prices went up by 34%…
Article
NAR Says the Typical First-Time Homebuyer Age Was 40 This Year, Up from 33 in 2021—but Is This Accurate?
It is a challenging time to become a first-time homebuyer (FTB).1 Recent age data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) appears to confirm that young FTBs are facing desperate…
Article
Three Years Later, Permanent Rate Buydowns Continue to Prop Up New Home Prices
When mortgage rates surged in early 2022, most sellers faced an uncomfortable reality: Affordability had collapsed and buyers were pulling back; existing home sales slowed significantly, and inventories of unsold…