Giving Compass' Take:

• Aravind Boddupalli and Erin Huffer argue that looking only at national housing trends can mask differences across states. They have created an interactive data tool that will help residents and community leaders better understand their states.

• How can funders use these insights to guide impactful giving around affordable housing? 

• Learn how corporations can bolster affordable housing. 

The US housing market reached a historic $29.1 trillion high this year, while the household sector's debt service ratio (the ratio of total required household debt payments to total disposable income) is at a 39-year low. However, looking only at national housing trends can mask differences across states.

Each state’s housing prices are affected by factors like the age and income of the local population, economic conditions within cities, tax benefits for housing assistance, and zoning laws. Thus, navigating a state’s policy debates requires context and context requires data—ideally, data we can quickly find, visualize, and understand.

In service of that goal, the State and Local Finance Initiative offers the State Economic Monitor, an interactive tool that helps users find, visualize, and share timely state economic data.

Below, we use the State Economic Monitor to tell the story of how the housing bubble, the housing market collapse, and the eventual recovery affected two very different states, California and Texas, and why this data still plays an important role in understanding current policy debates.

Read the full article about comparing state housing markets by Aravind Boddupalli and Erin Huffer at Urban Institute.