In the media

Newspaper, phone, and a coffee cup

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 [email protected] and include your name, press affiliation, phone number, questions/topic, and your deadline. Please do not email our researchers directly. 

(For copyright permission, complete form and send to [email protected])

Marketplace

Affordable homebuying programs can be great — until those houses need repairs

There’s not much incentive for homeowners who buy affordable units to invest in repairs since future sale prices are capped to keep these homes affordable from one owner to the next. Most affordable housing nonprofits or programs don’t have the resources to tackle these repairs, said Todd Swanstrom, a professor at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis who co-wrote a recent report on nationwide housing deterioration.

The New York Times

What Kalamazoo (Yes, Kalamazoo) Reveals About the Nation’s Housing Crisis

Middle-income renters have seen their rental burdens grow rapidly over the past two decades, according to a recent analysis of census data by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. Of course, poor people face more-severe rent burdens than middle-income renters, and their lives are more precarious...

Bloomberg

NYC's Rent Surge Drives 86-Year-Old to Move in With a 'Boommate'

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies estimates that almost a million people over the age of 65 now live with unrelated housemates. Roommate finder sites have seen an influx of older users, with SpareRoom experiencing its fastest growth among that cohort. And one-in-four roommates in the US is aged 45 or above, according to the site, a figure that’s more than doubled in the past decade.

The Boston Globe

$217,000 a year to afford a home in Boston? Who can even afford that?

The Harvard research estimates that a single-family home in the Boston metropolitan area in March 2024 was on average $705,000. The researchers used an affordability formula to estimate that homebuyers therefore need an annual income of $217,000 to buy a median-priced single-family home in Boston.

WBUR

Could ‘boommates’ help ease the housing crisis?

High housing costs are pushing more Americans to find roommates, including baby boomers and empty nesters. Jennifer Molinsky, director of the Housing and Aging Society Program at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, discusses this trend on the radio program, On Point.

The Atlantic

The Urban Family Exodus Is a Warning for Progressives

Housing has for several years been the most common reason for moving, and housing in America’s biggest and richest blue cities is consistently the least affordable. According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, among the cities with the highest median price-to-income ratios in 2023, nine of the top 10 were in California or Hawaii. The five cities with the most cost-burdened renters and owners were Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, Honolulu, and Oxnard, followed by Riverside, Bakersfield, the New York metro area, and Fresno.

NPR

Do you rent? You may be more vulnerable to climate-driven disasters

“[It’s] the fundamental sin in our disaster policy in this country, that everything is based on property and possession,” says Carlos Martín, a housing and climate researcher at Harvard University. Many renters have less wealth, and receive less government assistance after disasters, than homeowners, and suffer more severe and long-term financial impacts as a result, he explains. “It compounds these differences between the landed-gentry haves and the rest of the country that are have-nots.”