The housing affordability crisis is pervasive, but it can be solved with all hands on deck.
For a number of years, Virtus has pursued a Workforce Housing strategy based on the thesis that quality rental housing for the mass renter is vastly undersupplied nationwide. We began to explore this topic in Affordability Vol. 1, as we examined the scope and major drivers of the housing affordability crisis, as well as the “binding constraint” keeping urban rental rates too high relative to wages for most Americans.
Now, the second volume of our Affordability series takes it a step further, examining the scope and impact of the housing affordability crisis and providing three categories of solutions through the lens of the Workforce Housing segment of the multifamily industry.
A Few of the Key Takeaways:
- The crisis has chaining effects that hamstring individual families and likely constrain national growth and productivity.
- Even “grey collar” renters, the backbone of any workforce, struggle to afford quality multifamily housing.
- This trend will persist and worsen, particularly in a downturn, unless we as a society become more intentional about solving the housing affordability crisis.
- There are three categories of solutions to the housing affordability crisis as it relates to multifamily investment: (1) disruptive advancement to construction technology and/or processes; (2) improved urban planning and increased density; and (3) expanded partnerships between the private and public sectors.
