June 7, 2023
The Effect of Relaxing Local Housing Market Regulations on Federal Rental Assistance Programs
Abstract The majority of U.S. households that qualify for federal rental housing assistance do not receive it. In the absence of an entitlement to housing assistance, an underexplored cause of the shortfall is that higher rents in some areas driven by supply-constraining local regulations increase program costs, leaving fewer funds available to serve additional families….
May 23, 2023
Public Housing Should Have Work Rules, Too
Thanks to the debt-ceiling showdown, Republicans appear to have a fighting chance to add a work requirement for those receiving SNAP (food stamp) and Medicaid benefits. They should also turn their attention to another major federal program that fosters dependency and discourages work: housing assistance. Local experiments across the country suggest that requiring those in…
May 23, 2023
Biden Courts Another Mortgage Crisis
The Biden administration is making moves that could imperil the safety of the housing finance system. Recent mortgage pricing changes, which have generally decreased fees for borrowers with lower credit scores and increased fees for those with higher scores, have rightly garnered public outcry, but they are the tip of the iceberg. The administration’s other…
May 1, 2023
Here’s How Hochul Can Salvage Her Goal of More Affordable Housing in NY
Notably missing from the budget the Legislature is passing is a proposal Gov. Kathy Hochul had marked as a top priority: spurring cities and towns to build 800,000 new housing units. It wasn’t fundamentally a bad idea. You don’t have to be an economist to know that if housing prices are too damn high, increasing the…