AEI Housing Center: How We Can Make Housing Affordable Again

Wall Street Journal: How We Can Make Housing Affordable Again

AEI Housing Center Co-Director Ed Pinto responds to a recent piece from William Galston titled “Trump Can’t Ignore Our Housing Crisis” by arguing that the real challenge preventing the construction of millions of new homes is restrictive zoning. If states and localities legalize smaller lots, the U.S. can produce millions of new starter homes that cost less. AEI has partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to release 6,000 Housing and Economic Growth Playbooks that will detail strategies such as this for states, counties, and cities to tackle the housing shortage.

Op-Eds

The Cannon: Texas Just Provided a Housing Lifeline—Dallas-Fort Worth Cities Should Grab It

Large Texas municipalities have just been handed an enormous opportunity by the legislature to avoid the fate of unaffordable metros in California. The recent passage of SB-15 establishes lot size flexibility in Texas by eliminating city-imposed minimum lot sizes above 3,000 square feet for new subdivisions in larger cities. And SB-840 makes it easier to convert underutilized commercial spaces into residential units. If Dallas-Fort Worth leaders embrace these reforms, they can ensure continued growth, housing affordability, and opportunity for residents of all walks of life.

National Mortgage News: Why HUD Was Right to Roll Back PAVE Rule

AEI Housing Center Co-Directors Ed Pinto and Tobias Peter argue that the Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) task force operated on the false premise that disparities in home valuations between racial groups could only be explained by systemic race based discrimination. AEI Housing Center analysis shows that valuation differences identified in an oft-cited study by Brookings can be readily explained by socioeconomic status. By rolling back the taskforce’s changes to appraisal practices, HUD is removing layers of red tape that added cost and confusion to the mortgage process.

Reports

American Enterprise Institute: Institutional Investors in the U.S. Housing Market: Myths and Realities

In recent years, institutional investors have drawn substantial negative media attention for their purported role in limiting housing supply and driving housing unaffordability. But the market share of institutional investors is less than 1% nationally, and even at the peak of institutional investor activity, over 90% of these purchases were made by small and medium-sized investors, not Wall Street. The real solution to rising unaffordability is undoing decades of regulatory failure, such as exclusionary zoning, burdensome discretionary review processes, and costly regulations.

American Enterprise Institute: They Can Build It, But Can’t Afford It: Entry-Level Homeownership is Slipping Away in America

The AEI Housing Center’s 2024 Carpenter Index shows that workers who build America’s homes increasingly can’t afford to live in them, and not just in a handful of high cost metros. In 2012, there were only 21 metros where carpenter households could afford less than 50% of entry level homes. In 2024, that number has exploded to 74 metros. The root cause is no mystery: a persistent shortage of supply.

American Enterprise Institute: Philadelphia’s Renewal: The Impact of the 2000 10-Year Tax Abatement Program

In 2000, Philadelphia faced a bleak future: depopulation, urban blight, and strained city finances. But a new report from the AEI Housing Center shows how the ten-year property tax abatement program enacted in 2000 reversed decades of severe decline by incentivizing new housing construction in the city, reducing the townhome vacant lot share, and growing the population.

American Enterprise Institute: Unpacking HUD’s Homelessness Data: Building More Homes Is the Answer to Homelessness

HUD’s 2024 point-in-time homeless count has reached a record high in 2024, increasing 18% from last year to 771,000 people. The variable that continues to have the strongest explanatory power for homelessness rates in different places is the median home price to median income ratio. To end the homelessness crisis, we must remove the barriers to new construction and let our home supply meet demand.

Media

WVLK-AM’s ‘NewsTalk 590’: Discussing The Housing Affordability Crisis

AEI Housing Center Co-Director Ed Pinto discussed the supply-demand imbalance in housing markets and what we can do to end the shortage with Kruser & Crew. The Housing Center has partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to produce housing and economic growth playbooks for over 6,000 geographies, including Kentucky which can add 9,200 additional homes per year primarily through smaller lots in new residential subdivisions.

Sidebar by Courthouse News: The Impact of the 2000 10-Year Tax Abatement Program

AEI Housing Center Research Fellow Arthur Gailes argued that selling a sliver of public lands could build millions of new homes. Contrary to hyperbolic news reports and statements from advocacy groups, proposed land sales would not touch national parks, monuments, and other federally protected lands.

Article Mentions

• Newsweek: Map Shows States With Higher Rates of Homelessness
• Mansion Global: The Plan to Sell off U.S. Public Lands Faces a Painfully Slow Path
• Scotsman Guide: Federal land development is no ‘silver bullet’ for U.S. housing shortage: Realtor.com
• Newsweek: Home Price Growth At Lowest Point in Over a Decade
• HousingWire: Housing crisis could worsen if HOME budget is cut, NHC warns
• Jacksonville Journal-Courier: Commentary: The housing crisis: Political promises vs. reality — Joe Guzzardi
• Richmond County Daily Journal: Keep moving forward on housing
• Illinois Policy: Illinois housing prices climb, production remains slow

Social Media

• X: Map of underbuilt housing markets using AEI Housing Center data from @NewsLambert:
  • BROWN = Housing markets that are structurally underbuilt, according to AEI Housing Center’s analysisGREEN = Housing markets that are NOT underbuilt, according to AEIMap via @ResidentialClub

©2025  Edward Pinto. All rights reserved.

*** Conference Registration Open ***

Please join the AEI Housing Center for the 14th Annual Housing Conference, which will feature a wide array of panels and presentations on the state of the housing market. Panelists will explore the state of the housing market, a proposal to make housing affordable again through the sale of federal land, strategies for revitalizing cities and boosting housing supply, and insights from the AEI Housing Center’s housing supply case studies.

Day One: Tuesday, October 29th, 2025 | 10:00 AM to 5:15 PM ET
Day Two: Wednesday, October 30th, 2025 | 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM ET
Location: AEI, Auditorium | 1789 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036

For additional details and to RSVP to attend in person, please click the link here, or go to https://www.aei.org/events/14th-annual-housing-center-conference/.

If you are unable to attend in person, a video livestream will be made available here.