Competing for the American Dream in a Rigged System

Abstract

If you're a middle-class American trying to buy a home in today's housing market, you're the person who just sat down at the Monopoly board. Without a monopoly, you can't build houses and eventually you'll end up paying the other players - the landlords - every dollar you've got. Why even sit down to play? In Monopoly, it's impossible to win without collecting rents. LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD Even before the pandemic, the playing table was tilted: the national housing shortage most severely impacted those least able to weather the affordability crisis. Unrestricted, investor activity limits housing availability and decreases affordability. Affordable housing technology - tech purpose built to streamline and enable the creation of affordable housing - could level the playing field for non-profit housing developers, as well as small, community-based housing developers. Big business can't attract the working class talent needed to compete in a complex global economy without affordable housing within a reasonable commute to the workplace.