Report Outline
Special Focus
Introduction
The media tend to play up the horror stories: housing prices soaring out of control, rents so high that struggling single-parent families are forced into the streets, young couples unable even to think about buying their first home. But the hard data are inconclusive about whether a shortage of affordable housing exists at all.
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Overview
“We have a real tragedy unfolding,” Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato, R-N.Y., told Realtors gathered at their national conference last November. “We may not have GIs coming back from the war, but we have our youngsters” looking for housing. D'Amato pointed to his own daughter as an example of how difficult it is for young married couples to buy their first home: She and her husband had to pay a whopping $240,000 for what he described as “a very modest home.”
But accompanying the news report of D'Amato's dire pronouncement—on the same page of the newspaper, in fact—was a full-color chart showing that nationwide, houses are more affordable today than at any time since 1978. The chart, which depicted the National Association of Realtors' affordability index, indicated that a family earning the median income today has 12 percent more income than is needed to qualify for a loan on the median-priced single family home. In 1982, by comparison, that buyer was at least 30 percent short of the income needed to qualify. |
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Dec. 23, 2022 |
Homelessness Crisis |
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Apr. 02, 2021 |
Evictions and COVID-19 |
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Mar. 02, 2018 |
Affordable Housing Shortage |
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Nov. 06, 2015 |
Housing Discrimination |
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Feb. 20, 2015 |
Gentrification |
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Apr. 05, 2013 |
Homeless Students |
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Dec. 14, 2012 |
Future of Homeownership |
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Dec. 18, 2009 |
Housing the Homeless |
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Nov. 02, 2007 |
Mortgage Crisis  |
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Feb. 09, 2001 |
Affordable Housing |
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Jan. 06, 1989 |
Affordable Housing: Is There Enough? |
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Oct. 30, 1981 |
Creative Home Financing |
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Nov. 07, 1980 |
Housing the Poor |
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Dec. 21, 1979 |
Rental Housing Shortage |
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Nov. 24, 1978 |
Housing Restoration and Displacement |
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Apr. 22, 1977 |
Housing Outlook |
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Sep. 26, 1973 |
Housing Credit Crunch |
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Aug. 06, 1969 |
Communal Living |
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Jul. 09, 1969 |
Private Housing Squeeze |
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Mar. 04, 1966 |
Housing for the Poor |
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Apr. 10, 1963 |
Changing Housing Climate |
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Sep. 26, 1956 |
Prefabricated Housing |
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Sep. 02, 1949 |
Cooperative Housing |
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May 14, 1947 |
Liquidation of Rent Controls |
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Dec. 17, 1946 |
National Housing Emergency, 1946-1947 |
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Mar. 05, 1946 |
New Types of Housing |
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Oct. 08, 1941 |
Rent Control |
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Aug. 02, 1938 |
The Future of Home Ownership |
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Sep. 05, 1934 |
Building Costs and Home Renovation |
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Nov. 20, 1933 |
Federal Home Loans and Housing |
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Nov. 17, 1931 |
Housing and Home Ownership |
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