1381: The Housing Crisis | Skeptical Sunday

The housing crisis is real, but the villain isn't the one you think. Nick Pell nails down the real culprits here on Skeptical Sunday!

Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1381

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:

• The villain behind the housing affordability crisis isn't BlackRock. The scare stat that private equity owns 20% of single-family homes? The Urban Institute — a left-leaning shop — clocks it under 4%. Even grandpa renting out a condo counts as an "investor." Aim your outrage at the right enemy.
• Before a single plank of wood gets nailed, regulations bake about 24% into a new home's price — roughly $94,000 nationally, north of $150K in California. It's effectively illegal to build a genuinely cheap house, and almost nobody is protesting that.
• Golden handcuffs froze the market: why trade a 3% mortgage for a 6% one? Owners now sit tight a record 11 years, the listings that exist cluster between $750K and $1 million, and the starter home you could actually afford never reaches the market.
• The other culprit is your neighbor Greg, who treats vinyl siding as a war crime. Mandated gables, brick on all four sides, half-acre lots, mature trees — pure aesthetics, zero safety — heap tens of thousands onto every build and quietly outlaw the starter home.
• The empowering truth is that scarcity is a policy choice, so it's reversible — and the decisive fights are local. Show up to the city-council meetings you've been skipping. And credit is more fixable than you'd guess — Nick raised his 120 points in a year just paying down debt.
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