Housing Affordability: The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) serves as an unbiased forum for solving common issues and identifying opportunities within the building community. The NIBS Consultative Council assembles high-level building community leaders to make collective recommendations directly to policymakers to improve our nation’s buildings and infrastructure. Members of the council include organizations representing consumers, architects, engineers, government officials, contractors, researchers, and housing officials. The goals of the council are three- fold:
The goals of the council are three- fold:
• Convening Thought Leaders: bringing together industry leaders and experts from across the built environment to improve our nation’s infrastructure and buildings.
• Identifying Challenges: assembling experts who identify key issues they believe will be facing the industry in the year ahead.
• Finding Solutions: developing and publishing a yearly report that offers solutions to key challenges the built environment faces.
For the 2024 Moving Forward Report, the Consultative Council investigated two critical challenges facing the building industry: access to clean water and housing affordability. For each topic, the Council evaluated the state of the industry, identified key issues, and made recommendations to industry actors and policymakers to help overcome the challenge. NIBS and the Consultative Council intend to revisit each topic periodically, to track progress and discuss potential new challenges and solutions.
On November 6, 2023, NIBS and the Consultative Council hosted a full-day, three-part hearing focused on housing affordability at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The hearing brought together leading experts from trade associations, think tanks, academia, and practitioners to discuss the state of housing affordability and potential solutions to address the affordability and availability of housing for America’s families. A hearing summary, including speaker bios, presentations, and a recording of the event, can be found here: https://www.nibs.org/events/housingaffordability-hearing.
As part of the 2024 Moving Forward Report, the Consultative Council examined the fundamental problem of housing affordability in the United States. This report examines the issue of affordability of both rental and for-sale homes and its impact on all levels of society, along with a range of potential solutions to ease the strain of housing expenses on households.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s standard measure of affordability for renters and homeowners is to spend 30% or less of their gross income on housing costs. In recent years, the combination of a housing shortage, inflation, and higher interest rates increased the cost of both rental and purchase housing faster than wage growth, leading to higher percentages of consumers paying more than 30% and even 50% or more of their income for housing.
The third quarter 2023 Housing Affordability Report by ATTOM Data Solutions showed that median home prices in 99% of counties throughout the U.S. were less affordable than historical averages. From early 2020 to early 2023, rents in professionally managed buildings increased by 24%, according to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2023 report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies ( JCHS) at Harvard University. While steep housing costs impact lower-income households more significantly than higher income households, the issue is pervasive throughout all income levels in every community.