Housing Affordability Keeping 6 in 10 Americans From Economic Opportunities

National affordability conditions are now at a 10-year low, and new data suggest that most Americans can't afford to live in communities offering childcare, schools, and better job opportunities.

According to a recent Fannie Mae poll, 58 percent of American adults say it's to expensive to live in areas with access to better jobs, and 46 percent say they can't afford to live in communities with better schools and childcare, HousingWire reports. Fannie Mae's VP of sustainable communities Maria Evans says, “When nearly 6 in 10 Americans have to sacrifice economic opportunities and nearly half have to sacrifice quality education and childcare because of housing affordability, it’s clear we need to bring new ideas to the marketplace.”

And Fannie intends to do just that. In order to identify innovative solutions to the nation’s affordability crisis, the government sponsored enterprise has launched the third and final phase of its Sustainable Communities Initiative.

The Sustainable Communities Initiative is a two-year, $10 million challenge that has focused on the development of collaborative, cross-sector approaches to advancing sustainable communities.

Read more