Scott Galloway unveils eye-popping home buying, rent, housing struggles

The author and podcaster addresses a critical real estate crisis.

Mar 9, 2025 - 02:15

Scott Galloway unveils eye-popping home buying, rent, housing struggles

Rising home prices, the increasing cost of rent, and high mortgage rates are each contributing to major financial problems for many Americans.

New York University professor, author, and podcaster Scott Galloway urges people to understand the real estate and housing predicament in a different way.

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Specifically, in a No Mercy / No Malice column, Galloway aims his words at Democrats as the opening salvo in his "Project 2028" series that will address housing concerns and other important issues Americans face now.

Galloway's advice for them begins with his opinion that they ought to abandon what he says is their tendency to be indignant and instead embrace and explain big ideas.

Galloway has no shortage of thoughts on the subject, beginning with a new way of thinking about housing difficulties in the U.S.

A row of houses is seen with the San Francisco skyline in the background. Scott Galloway explains his view on a new and critical way of thinking about home buying and rent costs for Americans.
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Scott Galloway speaks bluntly on home buying, rent and housing costs

"The U.S. doesn’t have a housing crisis, but an affordability crisis," Galloway wrote.

The author explains that about a third of Americans pay for rent, not mortgages — and cites a United States Census Bureau report that found 49.7% of the 42.5 million renter households were "cost-burdened" in 2023, meaning that they spent more than 30% of their income on housing costs.

Galloway reports that, since 2019, rents have risen at a pace one-and-a-half times as fast as income in most metropolitan areas.

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As for buying a home, Galloway shares some findings on that topic as well.

"Owning a home marks one’s progression into adulthood, starting a family, and building wealth," he wrote. "But for many Americans, the American dream has become a hallucination."

In 1984, Galloway reports, the typical first-time home buyer's age was 29. That age rose to 35 in 2024.

Even after adjusting for inflation, home prices have increased threefold since 1963 — while median household income rose only one-and-a-half times.

And throughout the U.S., the average home price to income ratio is 4.7.

Scott Galloway makes economic case for government action on housing

Galloway explains that increasing financial difficulty with housing reduces workforce mobility and productivity. When workers are unable to live in high-growth areas, growth in general suffers.

One study suggests that lowering housing costs in the interest of human capital liquidity would grow the U.S. GDP (gross domestic product) by $1.4 trillion.

"In sum," Galloway wrote, "there may be an economic as well as a social justification for government investments in housing."

Taking the social justification argument further, Galloway highlights a Health Affairs health policy brief concluding that as families stuggle with housing affordability, they are more likely to delay medical care, eat less healthily, and experience anxiety and depression.

An even more serious problem is affordable housings' obvious relationship with homelessness. There are 770,000 homeless people in the U.S.

And another study Galloway cites found that in communities where the median rent is more than 32% of median household income, significantly higher homeless rates are reported.

"But no matter where they live, homeless people suffer intense physical and mental harm, put a disproportionate burden on public services where they live, and reduce the quality of life for all citizens," Galloway wrote.

People having difficulty paying rent and homeless people share one self-evident problem: They simply don't have enough money to cover housing costs.

Galloway believes increasing support for Section 8 housing (a federal program that provides rental assistance to very low-income families, the elderly, and people with disabilities) and rent control are only helpful in the short term.

"The quickest way to help poor people afford housing is simple: Pay them more," he wrote. "As I’ve written before, I believe the minimum wage should be $25 per hour."