An annual survey from the MacArthur Foundation found that 81 percent of respondents said housing affordability is a problem. Another third of the respondents said they or someone they know has been evicted, foreclosed on, or lost their housing in the past five years. And an additional 53 percent of respondents said they have had to make sacrifices in the past three years in order to pay their mortgage or rent, MarketWatch reports.
Despite all of the issues and the negative outcomes born of them, the majority of respondents believe the housing problem is solvable. Almost two-thirds of survey respondents, from both political parties, believe housing has not been addressed thoroughly enough in the 2016 campaign.
The policy step most respondents were in favor of was to revise the tax code to help those earning between $40,000 and $70,000 to buy a home, as 81 percent of respondents supported that idea. 80 percent of respondents supported expanding housing support for low-income families with children and 79 percent supported letting developers build more units if they include some targeted to lower-income families.
Even with this new housing crisis relating to affordable homes, 60 percent of respondents agreed owning a home is an excellent long-term investment. That number was 56 percent last year and 50 percent in 2014.
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