Project

Housing Policy Initiative

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Housing Policy Initiative

Housing is the largest regular expense for most Americans. But a record housing shortage and skyrocketing rents and home prices mean millions of Americans now struggle to afford housing.

The Pew Charitable Trusts’ housing policy initiative works to help policymakers reimagine their approach to housing by illuminating how regulations and statutes drive the housing shortage and rising costs. Strict zoning and land-use regulations have limited the availability of homes, especially lower-cost options such as apartments and townhouses, which could otherwise help meet the nation’s housing demand. At the same time, outdated financial regulations have prevented millions of creditworthy homebuyers—especially Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous people, and those in rural communities—from obtaining a mortgage to finance a low-cost home, pushing many borrowers into riskier and more costly alternative financing arrangements.

Pew studies the ways that policymakers can increase housing availability and safe home financing by revising land-use regulations that have reduced housing supply and increased costs, improve access to small mortgages—those under $150,000—and make non-mortgage financing arrangements safer for homebuyers.

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36 million Americans

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36 million Americans have used alternative financing at some point to pursue homeownership. TWEET

30%

Rents rose by 30% from Jan. 2017 to Jan. 2023. TWEET
Podcast

A Foundation in Montana: Housing in America

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Podcast

In this episode, we hear from Montana state lawmakers Daniel and Katie Zolnikov about the bipartisan legislation they championed to address rising concerns about access to housing. And Indigenous advocates in Montana, Jody Cahoon Perez, Tonya Plummer, and Patrick Yawakie, discuss how they’re helping their Tribal communities seek more affordable and culturally appropriate housing.

An illustration of the sun setting behind a single story home with a mailbox and planter garden.
An illustration of the sun setting behind a single story home with a mailbox and planter garden.
Issue Brief

Small Mortgages Are Too Hard to Get

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Issue Brief

Mortgages are essential financial tools that create a pathway to homeownership for millions of Americans each year. In recent years, however, many homebuyers have struggled to obtain small mortgages to purchase low-cost homes, those priced under $150,000. This problem has garnered the attention of federal regulators, including the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), who view small mortgages as important tools to increase wealth-building and homeownership opportunities in financially undeserved communities.

Trust Magazine

The High Cost of Putting a Roof Over Your Head

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Trust Magazine

Across the country in the wide expanses of Montana, it was easy less than a decade ago to find a comfortable family home in Bozeman for $250,000. Today, many of those same houses sell for more than $600,000, with prices often driven up by people moving in from more expensive states who have sold a house and have ready cash to buy what they want.

Article

How Housing Costs Drive Levels of Homelessness

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Article

A new analysis of rent prices and homelessness in American cities demonstrates the strong connection between the two: homelessness is high in urban areas where rents are high, and homelessness rises when rents rise.

OUR WORK

Financing a Low-Cost Home Should Be Easier

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Homeownership is the largest source of wealth for most American families, and obtaining a safe, traditional 15-to-30-year mortgage is a key step toward achieving financial security. But outdated housing policies and financial regulations have made small mortgages—those for homes priced under $150,000—expensive for lenders and unavailable for millions of qualified and creditworthy borrowers, especially Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous households and those in rural communities.

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Why Do Millions of U.S. Homebuyers Use Risky Financing Options?
Short video describes challenging path to homeownership