Is Housing Solvable?

<p>My favorite apartment ever belonged to a friend of mine in Brooklyn. It had to have been &mdash; at most &mdash; 550 square feet, but it was decorated in such a clean, modern way and laid out perfectly. You felt like you were in an&nbsp;<em>actual&nbsp;</em>studio of some sort, with a really trendy and hip artist at the helm.</p> <p>On the other hand, an employee of mine just signed a lease for a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment. The building is 1986&rsquo;s finest construction and looks like it hasn&rsquo;t had a dollar invested since then. It includes precisely zero amenities. The nearest real city is 109 miles away. Price? $2,605 monthly.</p> <p>It&nbsp;<em>does&nbsp;</em>have granite countertops, though. That was always a sticking point for me once I had a little income. Not anymore, though. We&rsquo;re looking at downsizing. Soon enough, so will (almost) everyone else.</p> <p>The median rent nationwide is now $2,029, which actually represents a modest&nbsp;<em>decrease&nbsp;</em>from the same time last year. What it does&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;</em>represent, however, is a sustainable situation.</p> <p>The same can be said for the current pairing of home prices and interest rates: not sustainable for most people. We&rsquo;ll get into the numbers a little later, but suffice it to say for now that the median person (or even household) cannot currently afford median items. Particularly housing.</p> <p>The question, then, is how do we solve a major affordability problem in one of the single most important markets in most of our nations? Is it even possible?</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@pshanosky/is-housing-solvable-part-one-49fca32528de"><strong>Click Here</strong></a></p>