**January 18, 2022** **A growing share of Americans say affordable housing is a major problem where they live** **By Katherine Schaeffer, Pew Research Center**
**Prospective homebuyers and renters across the United States have seen prices surge and supply plummet during the coronavirus pandemic. Amid these circumstances, about half of Americans (49%) say the availability of affordable housing in their local community is a major problem...**
**A majority of adults living in lower-income households (57%) say availability of affordable housing is a major issue in their community, larger than the shares of those in middle- (47%) or upper-income households (42%) who say it is a major problem....** [end quote]
This article breaks down the responses in several different ways, but the answer is clear: affordable housing is a problem even in the least pressured group – conservative Midwestern college graduates. About 1/4 of them report a problem finding affordable housing in their area, which I would consider a Macro-scale problem. Young, Western, minority, urban – up to 69% find housing unaffordable in their area, which is over the top hardship.
The article doesn’t address root causes, but I attribute the surge in housing costs to the Federal Reserve’s monetary pumping. Housing prices rose much faster than incomes, especially at the lower income end. The federal minimum wage in the United States has been $7.25 per hour since July 2009, the last time Congress raised it.
Its been 5 years since I worked at Oracle, but towards the end of my time there they were building a new campus downtown along the river. Part of that campus included an apartment building, as subsidized housing for employees. Most of them would have been new college grads. Imagine wanting to get a different job, only to realize you would also need to move and pay more. Or get laid off, and also loose your residence.
The article doesn’t address root causes, but I attribute the surge in housing costs to the Federal Reserve’s monetary pumping. Housing prices rose much faster than incomes, especially at the lower income end. The federal minimum wage in the United States has been $7.25 per hour since July 2009, the last time Congress raised it.
Given the minimum wage hasn’t increased since 2009, and many businesses until recently insist on paying the minimum wage, perhaps it’s time that we stop expecting the cost of housing to cater to what people are paid, to essentially subsidize businesses that insist on paying their employees too little.
This isn’t a new problem. When I was living in Boston in the early 1980’s, making not much more than minimum wage and working my way through school, I realized by moving to Philly I would earn about the same amount yet that money would go so much further. So I moved and I discovered the ability to have both food in my stomach and a roof over my head…not having to choose one or the other. I now live in an area where this complaint about housing is rampant, (and we have heard the complaints for the 5 years we have lived here,) much of the affordable housing taken up by students in our college town or bought out by us Damn Yankees who find housing to be cheap. Moving an hour away would bring you to a much bigger city with more opportunities and cheaper housing, but there is a sense of entitlement that they should not have to move, they grew up here. We seem to have become a nation of people who want what they want, not what they need. And your wants can be a motivating factor to achieve those wants if you do more than complain about it, but it seems the only thing that gets moving is their mouth.
Our area is wildly popular, offering great amenities at a relatively low price. Historically, many are willing to pay a premium for it. Businesses will either have to raise pay and prices, (which has been happening and of course complained about,) or the area will lose employees to that cheaper city with more opportunity, and then businesses will have to raise their pay. Now or later.
Given the minimum wage hasn’t increased since 2009, and many businesses until recently insist on paying the minimum wage
In Seattle, fast-food joints were paying above minimum wage to new hires in 1995. And had a hard time getting people to even show up on time for interviews.
