Raphael Bostic
President and Chief Executive Officer
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Confronting America’s Housing Crisis: Solutions for the 21st Century
The Murphy Institute, Tulane University
New Orleans, Louisiana
April 12, 2024
Key Points
- Atlanta Fed president and CEO Raphael Bostic believes housing is so foundational to family well-being and security that one could argue it transcends economics.
- In his view, true economic inclusion requires income security and the ability to build wealth. Housing is fundamental to both and therefore essential to economic mobility and resilience and in turn economic inclusion.
- But, he says, the quest to making safe and affordable housing available faces urgent challenges.
- Bostic explains that nationally, a household that earns the median income must spend 41 percent of that just to own the median-priced home, a percentage that far exceeds the standard threshold for affordability, which is 30 percent.
- He points out that about half of all renters in the Atlanta Fed’s district are struggling to pay rent. When renters are unable to pay rent, they are at risk of eviction—a deeply destabilizing event.
- Even as public sentiment appears to have solidified behind boosting production and affordability, survey findings show little evidence that actual policy has moved accordingly.
Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be here. I always enjoy visiting New Orleans. It’s one of our country’s most distinctive and colorful places. Thank you to Hoov, Dean Goes, Dean Alday, and all the organizers for inviting me.
This conference is exploring one of the bedrock economic issues of our time. Housing is so foundational to family well-being and security that one could argue that it transcends economics.
That’s why I’ve devoted a great deal of my career to studying housing and the critical role it plays in economic inclusion and the development of cities. Indeed, for many years, a catchphrase that emerged…
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