On January 11, I’m headed to Washington, D.C. to participate in the 2017 Zillow Economic Forum, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. This event will focus on the generational, racial, and socio-economic disparities that exist in the housing market. I’m excited to shed light on these disparities and explore ways that we can improve economic opportunity for all Americans.
In 2015 and 2016, I spent a lot of time on the road, visiting several U.S. cities and listening to local residents, officials and advocates discuss not only their communities’ housing challenges, but also the innovative solutions many were implementing locally to help solve those problems. And while each city had its own unique challenges – ranging from mortgage access and blight in Detroit, to negative equity in Las Vegas and NIMBYism in Miami – a few common themes emerged, most notably around housing affordability challenges. This emphasis on housing affordability is also the unifying thread tying housing back to the broader economy and to those widening generational, racial and socio-economic gaps.
Affordability is the theme that best illustrates the extent to which housing both influences and is influenced by larger economic trends. The relative affordability (or unaffordability) of renting or owning a home varies greatly by age, race, income and family status. But those factors, in turn, are greatly influenced by upstream non-housing issues including access to quality education, jobs and transportation.
Over the past few years, more narrow “housing policy” as we’ve always known it has faded from popular discussion, replaced by bigger conversations around overall economic growth, competitiveness, inequality and security. But while it’s natural for our conversation to evolve, we cannot lose sight of housing’s links to virtually every single other issue we might want to address. In the past, we have been so focused on examining housing as a driver of the economy that we’ve forgotten its importance as a bellwether of the economy, a gauge of our broader social and economic progress as a nation. We must commit ourselves to doing a better job refining this narrative: Housing discussions are economic discussions, and vice versa.
I truly hope that after our Jan. 11 forum, our discussions around the housing market become more inclusive of the broader social and economic problems that influence them. I’m optimistic they will, given the bold voices we’ve assembled and will hear from in D.C. I look forward to moving away from backwards-looking retrospection of yesterday’s issues, and toward tomorrow’s challenges. Away from reviewing yesterday’s solutions, and toward hearing new ideas from a new crowd of innovators with a fresh, integrated way of thinking about the challenges we face. I’m excited to see how these solutions can help fix not only housing’s challenges, but improve economic opportunity for all.
And finally, I’m excited for you to be part of the conversation. If you can, please join us in D.C. on Jan. 11 – the event is free, and I promise it will be fresh, thought-provoking and insightful. RSVP for the event here. If you can’t join us, you can still be part of the discussion. Please tweet me @SvenjaGudell with your thoughts or questions using the hashtag #HousinginAmerica.
I look forward to hearing from you and/or seeing you soon.