Housing Experts Say to Break from Stagnation, Regulatory Reform is Needed

Housing industry professionals say that policies and limited access to loans keep the market stagnant, HousingWire reports.

HousingWire summarizes a dialogue between housing experts during an event held by the NAR, NAHB, and McGraw Hill Financial Global Institute.

The immediate past president of the NAR, Steve Brown, argues that well-intentioned but overly corrective policies are hampering access to credit and holding back the market from full recovery. While S&P Dow Jones Indices Managing Director David Blitzer says that “despite price gains, the housing market faces some difficulties. Home prices are rising roughly twice as fast as wages, putting pressure on potential homebuyers and heightening the risk that any uptick in interest rates could be a setback.”

Another factor pinpointed was the psychological state of the American public. According to Julia Gordon, senior director of housing and consumer finance at the Center for American Progress, “[Americans] are still upset that heads did not roll after the housing crisis. Having failed to pursue anything meaningful on the criminal side, there’s a feeling of angst and a sense we need to do something on the enforcement side.”

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