Appelbaum: Barring investors won't fix the housing crisis

"But there's no need to wait for the details. Landlords are not the cause of the nation's housing crisis, and any plan that reduces investment in housing is only going to make matters worse. The crisis is a simple problem with a complicated solution. The problem is that the United States does not have enough housing. The hard part is building more."

"Construction has never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. Since then, the population has grown faster than the supply of new housing, and the result is a big game of musical chairs with not nearly enough chairs. While estimates vary, experts generally agree that we need millions of new housing units to close the gap. Up for Growth, a think tank focused on the shortage, puts the figure at 3.78 million."

Investors buying large numbers of single-family homes and operating them as rentals are being targeted as a cause of unaffordability, but landlords are not the root problem. The fundamental issue is a shortage of housing: construction never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis while population growth outpaced new supply. Experts estimate millions of additional units are needed, with Up for Growth estimating 3.78 million. Policies that reduce housing investment or restrict buyers would likely exacerbate the shortage. The durable solution is significantly increasing housing construction through policies that facilitate building more units.

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