Tackling America’s Housing Crisis with Mercatus Center’s Salim Furth

August 14, 2024

In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Salim Furth from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University to explore America’s housing affordability and supply crisis and the optimistic changes that are under way.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Why an esoteric domain like housing policy and zoning is suddenly in the spotlight in the US
What the “Housing Theory of Everything” is and why it’s important
Why the housing shortage isn’t confined to the United States and which countries are tackling it
Why NIMBYism is a universal human (or at least Anglophile) value
The shocking extent of our under-construction
Which simple zoning and regulation changes are making impact around the country
Which cities and states are doing the best work in housing
Whether increased immigration helps or hurts housing affordability
Which tax law changes are most effective
What will happen if the population declines
The optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for residential real estate, affordability and supply in the longer term future
Conclusions and insights from his recent “Laying Foundations” paper about the 50 most recent legislative efforts around the country

Related to this episode:

The Top of Mind Podcast is produced by Altos Research. Each week, Altos tracks every home for sale in the country – all the pricing, and all the changes in pricing – and synthesizes those analytics to make them available before becoming visible through traditional channels.