Americans face a litany of economic woes at the moment, and while tariffs are dominating the headlines, housing costs are a constant strain for workers and thus for bosses too.
In Manhattan’s Lower East Side, several professionals can’t afford to rent on their own. A starter home now costs $1 million in half the states, according to a new Zillow report, and California legislators are considering a bill that would let homeless students sleep in their vehicles.
Business leaders are feeling the impact as high housing costs have curbed labor mobility, return-to-office plans and the ability for employers to recruit in places like Silicon Valley.
Michael Lefenfeld, CEO of Hexion, which makes advanced materials used in construction thinks “we’re talking too much about mortgage and housing costs, and not enough about permitting and the applications to build a house. That really is constraining builder sentiment… the regulatory challenges, whether it’s state or federal, to get permits to build at a meaningful rate.
”I’m surprised Donald Trump hasn’t embraced housing policies to win public support or put public pressure on cities as he has done with immigration. Instead, the Administration’s new tariffs on building materials could add costs of about $10,900 per home, according to a new NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index survey.
And the immigration crackdown could make it harder to find workers to build new units. But housing policies are local, of course. It’s telling that Austin, which has issued about 10 times more permits per capita than San Francisco in recent years, has also outpaced its California rival in the growth of high-tech jobs.
