How Red Tape Made Housing the Unachievable American Dream

Originally published by the Washington Examiner

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is right. America does have a housing crisis. Stubbornly high construction costs and interest rates have made housing prices across the country unaffordable for many average families. Both homeowners and renters struggle to afford the cost of housing, and the so-called solution of government-regulated affordable housing is exacerbating the problem.

While government-regulated “affordable housing” projects have been praised by leaders in cities across the nation, in reality, few things capture the dysfunction of government solutions so acutely.

Instead of providing accessible, affordable options for families in need, affordable housing projects are so heavily regulated that they end up costing significantly more to build when compared to market rate projects. In just one example in San Jose, California, an “affordable” housing project topped out at nearly a million dollars per unit, an oxymoron to say the least.

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