If housing is the bottleneck, what else gets stuck?

I have a more high-level conversation I want to start with you today. And I do mean high level, so please respond – whether that’s via email, in the comments or feel free to call or text me because I really do want to hear your thoughts on this.

I have a specific mission that I’m on and I’m really clear on who I want to help. I’ve already talked about that in detail, so I won’t bore you with the demographics of my target audience. I will tell you that this year I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about who the enemy of my audience is. What are we teaming up to fight against? What are the consistent, repetitive and reoccurring challenges in our way?

I have this tool that eliminates the barriers of socioeconomic mobility. I can show you how to use real estate investing to achieve financial stability – regardless of your education, background, upbringing. I’ve successfully helped hundreds of families, investors, people from all different walks of life with varying personal and financial goals use homeownership to change the trajectory of their lives. I believe in it so much that I personally invest in real estate as means of achieving my own biggest goal – to someday be able to be present wherever I am. To not be worried about work or home but to have enough financial stability that I have freedom of time.

My enemy is not the lack of socioeconomic mobility in America. My enemy is the perception that you are trapped in your current financial state (which studies show impacts your mental health and family in significant ways) because of the degree you have or don’t have, the family you were born into, the money you have in the bank. I show my clients and my audience how they can use real estate to leave those limiting beliefs behind.

Ok enough about me…

Last night I saw this article from Wall Street Journal. Now that you know what my enemy is, you can see why it caught my attention. It starts with a fact we’ve all been feeling for a long time: Americans are stuck. And while I encourage you to read the entire article, the main point is that economic and geographic mobility go hand in hand. The housing affordability crisis is not problem for the real estate industry – it is a GDP problem. (amongst other things!) And of course it’s more complicated than high home prices.

For decades, the job market drove mobility. People relocated for better opportunities, and that movement kept our economy dynamic. Now, between high housing costs and a cooling labor market, we’re seeing the opposite: people staying put, even when it hurts their careers, their finances, and their families. And this could be one of the many reasons our current administration is pushing for lower borrowing costs. My concern here is twofold:

It may be too late. Inflation has gotten so bad and the Fed’s fight against it had to be so aggressive that people are hurting financially in very real ways. That pain has impacted their ability to qualify for financing – specifically their credit scores have tanked due to delinquencies on credit cards and installment loans. Less specifically, their debt-to-income ratios are completely upside down. So if rates drop tomorrow, they still won’t be able to qualify for a mortgage because their loan profile has been damaged by the financial stress of those past few years.

The lack of supply of homes. As interest rates went up, buyers left the market in huge numbers. As they come down, the competition will return but the inventory of homes won’t magically increase to keep pace. So lower rates will almost certainly drive up home prices. I don’t believe Trump has a good plan for this and I feel strongly the result will be a further separation between the wealthy and those barely getting by.

Like I said though, this isn’t just about home prices or mortgage rates. When people can’t move for a better job, downsize for financial relief, or upsize for a growing family, it creates a low-grade anxiety that seeps into every corner of life. Housing becomes not just shelter, but a bottleneck to personal growth, mental health, and economic vitality.

So here’s where I want to hear from you:

How many of your clients have made major life decisions - about jobs, relationships, or retirement- because of housing constraints?

If affordability improved overnight, what ripple effects would you expect to see in our local economy and in your own life?

Are we underestimating housing’s role as part of our mental health infrastructure?

Drop your thoughts in the comments or reach out directly, I’m collecting stories and perspectives for a bigger conversation we’ll be having this fall. Because if we can start thinking about housing as more than just square footage and interest rates, we might just find new ways to unlock opportunities for everyone.