This graph from the US captures an OECD concern about housing. The blue line, which charts median house prices, has risen far faster than the red one, which shows median incomes.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has just issued a policy brief about affordable housing. It begins with an 20 year overview of trends in housing affordability. It moves on to a survey of government responses to help households hang on to their housing during the pandemic. The report winds up with a discussion of housing policies to support economic recovery. As this post’s headline indicates, the OECD sees a need to build more housing that will be permanently affordable to people with very-low and no incomes as part of a program of economic recovery.
The OECD’s report recommends building social housing as a component of a recovery plan partly because of its economic benefit. Residential construction means employment. On the social side of the equation, it will add much needed housing to bring down the numbers of people who are homeless as well as people who have very little income to pay for any of their basic needs.
The authors also call for supports to young people. Not only have they been particularly hard hit economically by COVID, they were struggling with housing costs before the pandemic arrived.
The report is of interest to anyone looking for policy directions to make housing more affordable as part of recovery plans. It will also be useful to those who plan to draw on data from other countries to advance arguments for specific policy directions. Read more at the OECD: Building For A Better Tomorrow: Policies To Make Housing More Affordable
The OECD publishes a range of housing indicators and policy initiatives. They allow the viewer to dig deeper using interactive charts and graphs, as well as downloadable data sets. This includes high level discussions of the strengths and weaknesses of specific policies, which can inform policy design and debate. See: OECD Affordable Housing Database