Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis - Hardcover

by Charles L. Marohn (Author), Daniel Herriges (Author)

Housing is an investment. Investment prices must go up. Housing is shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people experience distress.

This is the housing trap. It's time to escape. In Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis, renowned urbanists Charles (Chuck) Marohn and Daniel Herriges introduce a first-of-its-kind discussion of the tension between housing as a financial product and housing as shelter. This is the key insight that's been missing from the Housing Crisis Conversation; and the insight that can help cities fight back against the crisis from the bottom-up.

This book offers a serious, yet accessible, history of housing policy in the United States and explains how it led us to this point in time: where we face a market that is rigged against people who, only a few decades ago, could have been homeowners or stable, long-term rentals.

Only local change, on a neighborhood or city-wide scale, can begin to restore balance to the housing market.

Escaping the Housing Trap is the must-read resource for everyone with a stake in the future of housing in America--and that means everyone. Readers will find:

• Discussions of housing as an investment and how the country's neighborhoods are being transformed by the introduction of large amounts of investment
• Explorations of housing as shelter, including discussions of zoning policy and NIMBYism
• A comprehensive overview of the Strong Towns approach to solving the American housing crisis

Front Jacket

In Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis, renowned urbanists Charles L. Marohn, Jr. and Daniel Herriges explore the perpetual tension between the "housing as a financial product" approach that dominates housing markets, which has led to record high housing prices and millions of Americans experiencing housing insecurity in one form or another, and the "housing as shelter" constraint that all of us as humans share--a requirement for a dignified life with access to opportunity.

The first third of this book addresses the history of housing finance, from the creation of the modern home mortgage and the problems it was intended to solve, to the ways in which the objective of rising home prices has become ever more entangled with the health of the U.S. financial system as a whole.

The second third of the book covers the public policy environment that governs housing as shelter: where it is built, what can and cannot be built, and the political forces that come to bear on these questions.

Understanding both prior sections lays the groundwork for the third and final section, which discusses rational steps that local leaders can begin to take right now to make room for a new housing paradigm: one that is able to rapidly produce housing on a local scale in response to local needs.

Shining light on the underlying incoherencies and inefficiencies in modern housing and providing a blueprint for taking action now to solve the problem on a local scale, Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis is a can't-miss resource for urban and regional planners, housing experts, social justice advocates and professionals, and everyone with a stake in the future of housing in America.

Back Jacket

UNDERSTAND THE MODERN HOUSING CRISIS, WITH LOCAL SOLUTIONS FOR LEADERS

There are two different, mutually incoherent conversations about the housing market: the one conducted by "housing" people and the one among "finance" people. In Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis, renowned urbanists Charles L. Marohn, Jr. and Daniel Herriges explore both viewpoints, providing rational steps that local leaders can begin to take right now to make room for a new housing paradigm.

This book covers everything there is to know about housing in America, from the creation of the modern home mortgage and the problems it was intended to solve, all the way to the modern public policy environment that governs housing as shelter and the political forces that influence it. The authors take a deep dive into important big picture concepts, such as discussions of zoning policy and NIMBYism, the disempowering and destructive idea of cataclysmic money in housing communities, and more.

Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis is an essential read for planners, advocates, experts, and all individuals who wish to understand and help solve society's housing problems of today.

Author Biography

CHARLES L. MAROHN, JR. is the president and co-founder of Strong Towns, a nationally-recognized nonprofit media organization working to shape the conversation on growth, development and the future of cities. Strong Towns supports a model of development that allows America's cities, towns, and neighborhoods to grow financially strong and resilient.

DANIEL HERRIGES serves as Senior Editor for Strong Towns, and has been a regular contributor since 2015. He has a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota, with a concentration in Housing and Community Development.