In a series of articles for RealClearInvestigations, Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox report on the roots of the housing affordability crisis and how Americans are responding to it.
The housing affordability crisis is not just an Americans phenomenon, Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox report in the first of two articles on the housing for RealClearInvestigations. From San Francisco to Stockholm to Sydney, restrictive land-use policies, rather than population growth or technical limitations, are the primary drivers of the current housing shortage and price inflation, threatening middle-class prosperity and the foundations of democratic societies.
The affordable housing crisis keeps getting worse in America and much of the developed world because it is dominated by the wrong voices talking about the wrong places. In the second of two report essays on the global housing crisis for RealClearInvestigations, Joel Kotkin describes how a dramatic policy shift that embraces decentralization, deregulation, and technology can revive the dream of home ownership—especially for young people and families. Kotkin reports:
For over a century, migration in the U.S. flowed from rural towns to major cities. Now, that trend is reversing, Joel Kotkin & Wendell Cox report for RealClearInvestigations. Urban cores are shrinking while suburbs, exurbs, and small towns are experiencing rapid growth. Between 2010 and 2020, suburbs gained 2 million domestic migrants, while core counties lost 2.7 million. Pandemic-driven remote work accelerated this shift, with core counties losing 3.2 million people in just the first four years of the 2020s.
In their second installment in their series for RealClearInvestigations, Joel Kotkin & Wendell Cox report that Americans are dispersing away from dominant coastal metros toward smaller cities, towns, and rural regions that once seemed left behind. Lower housing costs, expanding job opportunities, cultural renewal, and a resurgence in manufacturing are reshaping the nation’s demographic, economic, and political landscape.
