Author and New York Times journalist Conor Dougherty joined the UCLA Anderson Forecast June 2020 Economic Outlook to discuss his new book Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America and the ongoing housing affordability crisis. Before the pandemic hit, housing affordability was a critical issue plaguing Americans—and it hasn't gone away. In fact, in many ways, the pandemic will amplify housing shortages and unaffordability.

In his conversation with UCLA economist Edward Leamer, Dougherty posited that cities have become so expensive, service and lower income workers can no longer live near job centers. "We do not have a housing market that reflects the ability of lower income people to afford what their wages will buy," he said. "We have this massive inversion where we look like European cities with rich neighborhoods in the core central to jobs and lower income people pushed to the fringe where they have to endure mammoth commutes."

The solution to the crisis is going to have to be multifaceted, and really require a framework model with concepts from both sides of the argument: the private and the public. "This is going to require a little bit of both sides," said Dougherty. "You need to build a lot more housing and a market mechanism and profit motive is going to be part of that. You also need a really robust policy response with higher taxes and some sort of direct subsidy for people that have been left out of the economy or at least been made to exist with very little chance for mobility."