Private listing ecosystems could deepen the housing affordability crisis

It was encouraging to see lawmakers make good on their promise to prioritize homeownership earlier this year with the bipartisan passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. But more than two months later, it has become clear that the current home affordability crisis goes beyond building more units, and the initial adjustments to macroeconomic levers will not be enough to avoid a fundamental crisis of opportunity in the housing market. In the last few months, traditional housing inventory has increased yet, the median existing-home price also increased for the 38th consecutive month on a year-over-year basis. Existing-home sales fell another 2% in August to an annualized rate of 3.98 million, while pending sales remained 4.7% below last year’s level. The new law was a starting point, not the solution. Americans are still confronting a housing market characterized by historically depressed sales activity, elevated borrowing costs and persistently high home prices. Addressing those challenges requires looking beyond simply building more homes and adjusting macroeconomic levers to the structural factors that determine whether consumers can actually access the housing opportunitie...