In the media

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Our research is regularly cited in national and local news outlets; below is some of our recent press coverage.

To be added to our media list, or if you have an interview request, please contact kerry_donahue@harvard.edu and include your name, press affiliation, phone number, questions/topic, and your deadline. Please do not email our researchers directly. 

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Harvard Magazine

Housing in the Climate Crosshairs

The U.S. home price index jumped 46 percent from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to last year. Add to that a budding insurance crisis driven in part by climate change, and a history of reactive rather than forward-looking federal policy responses—these are the ingredients of a crisis. In a March 25 briefing, Carlos Martín of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies alluded to this risk as he spoke about the current state of climate adaptations in relation to U.S. housing. JCHS postdoctoral fellow Steven Koller followed with a detailed analysis of climate change impacts on the residential insurance market.

Inc.

How Tiny Homes Could Solve a Big Problem for Los Angeles

“Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, have been proposed as a way to add housing stock to address the country’s housing crisis,” according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. These “independent living spaces,” the Center notes, are on the same lot as a larger primary dwelling, and have their own kitchen, sleeping quarters, and bathroom.

Dwell

Fixer-Uppers Make Cities Great—At a Price

"Improving America’s Housing" is issued every two years and tracks significant changes in the home repair and renovation markets over time, utilizing data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s American Housing Survey conducted by the Census Bureau. But it’s not an industry trend report, says Sophia Wedeen, senior research associate at the JCHS; rather, "Improving America’s Housing" speaks to the renovation market’s health, possible causes for fluctuations, and the effects that renovations can have on the housing market at large.

The Wall Street Journal

Meet the Homeowners Who Have Had Enough of Their Covid Relocation Dreams

Many Americans who left large cities during the pandemic headed to suburbs, small cities and rural areas. Since then, net migration outflow from big cities has tapered off, returning to the prepandemic trend of suburbanization, said Riordan Frost of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

Marketplace

Homeownership rates stagnate for young people

Younger people are waiting and seeing as they continue to trail their parents’ generation in terms of homeownership, which can be an important financial milestone. “Homeowners have about 40 times the wealth of renters,” said Daniel McCue, senior research associate at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Forbes

Drastic Change Needed To Slow Climate Risk Valued In Trillions

According to a new report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America’s Housing, homeowner spending for disaster repairs has trended up in all regions of the country, totaling $49 billion in 2022 and 2023, as compared to $16 billion in 2002 to 2003. This also means that disaster repair spending as a share of total home improvement spend went from an average of 4.4% in the decade before 2004 to 6.4% in the decade since 2013.

KCBS Radio

Older housing stock plays role in US remodeling market demand

The US remodeling market has been soaring in the US in recent years but it's been difficult for the industry to keep up. New research out today shows the issues plaguing the industry and where more investment is needed. For more on this, KCBS Radio news anchor Margie Shafer spoke with Carlos Martín, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Newsweek

How a Recession Would Worsen US Insurance Crisis

Between the Great Recession of 2008-2009 and the end of 2024, homeowners insurance premiums have increased by 74 percent while home prices rose by more than 40 percent, according to a recent study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

The Harvard Gazette

Number of those burdened by rental affordability hits record high

As of 2023, 22.6 million renter households spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, up by 2.2 million since 2019. More than half, or 12.1 million, of those spent more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs, according to recent research by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. Chris Herbert, the center’s director, explains why renting continues to grow less affordable and what cities can try to do about it.

The Economist

Your guide to the new anti-immigration argument

The rise in demand for American houses after the pandemic owes much more to millennials’ behaviour (as low interest rates at last enabled them to get a foot on the housing ladder) than migration, suggests Riordan Frost of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.