America's housing crisis is the result of classist credit guidelines

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2021-05-23 14:30:09

America is in a housing crisis. "US home sales are surging. When does the music stop?" asked the New York Times' Stephanos Chen last month. CNBC reports that "when is the housing bubble going to crash?" is a "red hot" Google search. Meanwhile, US News and World Report warns that "cities need a building boom to avoid a housing bubble."

While inflated housing prices might be concerning, it is not the most pressing housing crisis facing America today. Much more alarming is the lack of affordable housing and the lack of financing options for low-income borrowers. The way we score credit, and the way we qualify borrowers, is inherently classist, and America's fixation on wealthy borrowers and its credit scoring system are unfairly keeping low-income but responsible people off the housing ladder. If we really want to help people into homes, we must change the way we qualify borrowers for mortgages.

The lack of affordable housing is often cited as the most pressing obstacle to homeownership. This is indeed a problem. The coronavirus has left many homeowners reluctant to sell, whether for fears of financial insecurity or because they didn't want strangers traipsing through their home during a pandemic. However, for those of us familiar with the mortgage industry – which I spent much of the past decade working in – the shortage of available homes for sale is nothing new.