Addressing the US housing crisis with the Property Brothers
As people who've spent their lives helping others transform houses into comfortable homes, the Property Brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott are keenly aware of the impact of the ongoing housing crisis. "We're probably about 4.5 million homes short of a healthy market," Jonathan explains to Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi on Opening Bid. He continues by underlining that a big hurdle is that people don't want affordable housing in their own neighborhoods, likely because people often biasedly assume that poverty will bring crime. If people don't care about affordable developments for the sake of someone else having shelter, then the toll on tax-payers should grab their attention. "It actually costs us more in taxpayer dollars than it does to house people somewhere safe. They say instantly, as soon as somebody has a safe house over their head, the likelihood of them descending into further drug problems or crime problems, it drops like a quarter. And the longer that they're off the street, the safer it gets," he says. "So what we've said is right now they're paying in most major cities, they're paying about $800,000 to $900,000 per one bedroom unit to build. We can get that cost down under $200,000." For full episodes of Opening Bid, watch on our website or listen on your favorite podcast platform. Catch Brian Sozzi's full interview with Property Brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid. This post was written by Rachael Lewis-Krisky, producer for Opening Bid.
