This is how zoning impacts homebuying

Today’s HousingWire Daily interview features a crossover episode from HousingWire’s Housing News podcast. In this episode, HousingWire’s Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler interviews John Beacham, CEO of Toorak Capital Partners. 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.

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.

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.