The Housing Affordability Opportunity: Lowering Costs and Expanding Supply

A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that 330 million urban households around the world live in substandard housing or are financially stretched by housing costs, and that within a decade at least 1.6 billion people worldwide will struggle to obtain decent, affordable housing. Here in the U.S., for the 11.5 million extremely low-income households in 2012 there were only 3.3 million rental units affordable and available to them.

Despite these staggering statistics, there are policies and actions that can help increase the supply of affordable housing and reduce the housing affordability gap globally and here in the U.S. On April 7, join HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity International and Enterprise Community Partners, for an evidence-based discussion on the challenges and opportunities for expanding housing affordability.