These initiatives could support affordable housing

This week, HousingWire’s Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler interviews John Beacham, CEO of Toorak Capital Partners. In this episode, Beacham discusses his recent HousingWire article that outlines three common-sense initiatives that could immediately make a difference in affordable housing, as well as how zoning impacts homebuying process.

Here is a small preview of the interview, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Sarah Wheeler:  In a recent article you wrote for HousingWire, you talked about the opportunity coming out of this pandemic period to actually prioritize affordable housing in some new ways. Why do you think now is a good time to do this?

John Beacham: First of all, clearly, we’ve all had a lot of time to think over the past year about what’s going on in the world and what opportunities we have to make things better. And some of the problems that we have in the housing space are fundamental problems that really need a lot of focus. There’s a lot of inequalities in housing access across the country, and that’s become even more important than ever. You’ve seen, the haves and have nots coming out of this crisis, where certain groups of people that are in the professional class are actually doing okay, and clearly, lower-income people as a group have had more trouble going through the pandemic. So, you have this double whammy of housing prices getting more expensive throughout this time, frankly, in a pretty rapid way across most areas of the country. However, at the same time, lower-income people don’t really have the ability to have stable jobs and qualify for mortgages and take advantage of low-interest rates that currently exist. So, that’s causing housing prices to get more and more out of reach, especially on the affordable side, for people who are looking for affordable housing. This whole issue has really come to a head as a result of the pandemic.

The Housing News podcast explores the most important topics happening in mortgage, real estate, and fintech. Each week a new mortgage or real estate executive joins the show to add perspective to the top stories crossing HousingWire’s news desk. Hosted by Sarah Wheeler and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.