Policy & Legal Matters: A

A Partnership to Solve Supply

By Christie DeSanctis

The lack of housing supply continues to dominate discussions amongst real estate industry professionals and policymakers in Washington, D.C. The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) is at the forefront of these conversations, confronting the barriers to building, and supporting solutions to tackling these challenges. NAR has partnered with innovative and influential organizations looking to solve the ongoing supply and affordability crisis through data-driven resources that spur localized action and can be replicated nationally.

To that end, NAR recently contributed to a new report published by Up for Growth, an organization founded to achieve housing equity, eliminate systemic barriers and create more homes. Up for Growth issued the “Housing UnderproductionTM in the U.S. 2022” report, with feedback from trade associations, housing producers, economic development organizations and public policy advocates focused on social justice, the environment and affordability.

The report explains the depth of the housing deficit across the country, dialed down to cities and counties, examining what local policies may be causing the shortage or driving up infrastructure costs and what reforms are alleviating underproduction. For example, from 2012 to 2019, the housing deficit grew in 230 metropolitan areas, while only 25 saw their housing deficit shrink. After analyzing the trends resulting in the housing shortage, the report offers effective and practical solutions to produce more affordable homes, grow tax revenues, increase gross regional and gross national product, decrease the amount of land needed for housing and infrastructure, and lower greenhouse emissions, while making sure that such benefits are available to all communities.

Bryan Greene, NAR’s vice president of policy advocacy, also contributed to the report, examining the wealth gap between Black and white households that persists due to past discriminatory practices. He explains how the current shortage and affordability crisis threatens to exacerbate inequality further, and that repairing the harm caused by racially restrictive covenants, redlining, unfairly devalued communities and other officially sanctioned discrimination must be part of the solution. As discussed with the Biden administration, Greene wrote about the need for a comprehensive plan to address housing supply and housing equity that includes zoning reforms, investment in new construction, expansion of financing and tax incentives to spur investment in housing, and the conversion of unused commercial space to residential.

Introduced in the report is “A Better Foundation™,” a new resource for cities and towns to use as they evaluate policies to decide where and what types of housing to build. It focuses on places where new housing would be the most socially, economically, fiscally and environmentally beneficial. Developed using a racial equity lens, this mapping tool is designed to promote affordability by evaluating optimal housing conditions for a given area, assessing factors including high economic mobility, access to jobs and existing infrastructure, to maximize home production.

NAR will continue to work with industry partners to reverse policies that exacerbate housing unaffordability and racial disparities while actively promoting economic opportunities for more communities. See the latest efforts at www.nar.realtor/.

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Christie DeSanctis is the director of Federal Banking, Lending & Housing Finance Policy and of Federal Policy and Industry Relations for the National Association of REALTORS® .