Jeff Greene

Housing: An Asset Class or a Place to Live?

Scott Garrett, Jeff Greene, Emile Haddad, James Litinsky, Rick Newman, Jim Latinsky

Following a bottom in sales, the housing market has stabilized with prices rising 9% year-over-year, yet experts attribute the current recovery to artificial government support that creates unsustainable low mortgage rates and a heavy reliance on GSE bailouts. A severe shortage of entitled land in high-growth regions combined with massive private and foreign investor activity is constraining supply, while panelists warn that a return to free-market interest rates could collapse the recovery if buyers cannot qualify at 5% or 6%. Although policymakers aim to reform GSE dominance over the next two decades, the consensus remains that the current era of financial repression has mispriced assets and risks a future correction once subsidies are reduced.