White House details plans to improve housing affordability

White House officials are outlining plans to build and restore more than 2 million homes

WASHINGTON -- White House officials are outlining plans to build and restore more than 2 million homes, a response to the volcanic rise in housing prices over the past year. Millions of Americans are getting priced out of ownership or stuck spending the bulk of their income on rent. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index climbed a record 19.1% in June from a year ago, as too few homes are available to buy and low interest rates have enabled affluent buyers and real estate investors to pay more for homes. The jump in prices is a threat to President Joe Biden's vision of centering the U.S. economy around the middle class, a group that has defined itself in large part through home ownership. Americans' desire to own homes has also altered regional politics as suburbanites aligned with Democrats in 2020 to help give Biden key victories in Arizona and Georgia, two states that have added population through new home construction. The White House Council of Economic Advisers on Wednesday posted on its blog a detailed analysis of the affordability problem and the administration's plans to relieve it. Its analysis notes that housing supply has fallen short of population growth for four decades, so many of the challenges predate the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.