Findings of a National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) survey conducted by Morning Consult revealed nearly three out of four American households believe the nation is suffering a housing affordability crisis.
“These poll results confirm what builders from across the nation have been warning about, that housing affordability is an increasingly serious problem in communities across America,” Randy Noel, NAHB chairman and a custom home builder from LaPlace, Louisiana, said. “A mix of regulatory barriers, ill-considered public policy, and challenging market conditions is driving up costs and making it increasingly difficult for builders to produce homes that are affordable to low- and moderate-income families.”
The survey gathered responses from more than 2,200 adults Nov. 27 through Nov. 30. It assessed the public’s attitude on whether a lack of affordable housing is a problem in their neighborhoods, cities, and states as well as nationwide.
Of the respondents, 73 percent believe that a lack of affordable housing is a problem in America, 68 percent believe this is an issue in their state, and 54 percent cite housing affordability as a concern in their neighborhood.
Additionally, 58 percent said that if they decided to purchase a home in the near future, they would have trouble finding a home they could afford in their city or county. Sixty-eight percent reported a lack of affordable housing as a problem in urban communities, 64 percent said it was an issue in middle-class neighborhoods, and 56 percent cited it as a problem in rural areas.
“Housing is vital to the economic health of our nation,” Noel said. “This poll should serve as a wake-up call to policymakers at all levels of government to ease burdens needlessly driving up the cost of housing and enacting policies that will encourage production of badly-needed affordable housing units.”