, Columnist
Housing Is Back, But the American Dream Isn’t
Surging prices, tight lending standards and Nimbyism keep the young and poor out of the market.
Do you have enough for a down payment?
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The housing market has made a remarkable — if partial — recovery since the disaster that befell it 10 years ago. In the years since the crisis, the market has recouped about two-thirds of the value it lost in the crash:
But unlike in the early 2000s, when housing became a vehicle for broad-based middle-class wealth, today’s bull market is shutting out many lower-earning and younger Americans. This is partly because of policy choices. But it also illustrates some of the pitfalls of relying on housing as the pillar supporting a country’s middle class.