Did The Housing Crisis Ever Really End?

Just when you think you’re out, it pulls you back in. At least, that is how many Americans feel about the housing crisis. Not only do most Americans say they feel like the crisis never truly released its grasp, but according to a new poll from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one in five Americans believe the worst is yet to come.

According to CityLab, 20 percent of Americans believe the worst of the housing crisis is still to come, and this pessimism doesn’t seem to be improving as the share of respondents who feel this way has remained largely unchanged. That figure totaled 19 percent in both 2014 and 2013.

Forty-four percent of respondents answered that they were still in the thick of the housing crisis, and 81 percent said that housing affordability is a problem. Another 37 percent said that housing affordability is “a very serious problem.”

As far as possible solutions, 60 percent of respondents said it was “very important” for elected leaders to address housing affordability problems and another 63 percent don’t believe the current presidential candidates are giving the issue the attention it deserves.

As the recovery, or lack there of (as some people see it) continues to progress, it will be interesting if any of the presidential candidates decide to make housing a larger aspect of their campaign or if it will continue to simmer on the backburner in a perpetual state of crisis.

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