Common Sense Radio: Housing Affordability in Vermont with Art Woolf
Friday, October 16, 2026,
on Common Sense Radio, with Bill Sayre, weekdays, 11 o’clock till Noon.
Art Woolf — economist, demographer, and author of the Substack entitled, Davis Dewey is Rich — joins Bill to discuss housing affordability in Vermont — how to define, measure, along with causes and consequences.
Potential Questions and Issues
What portion of the Consumer Price Index is represented by housing, ownership and renting; and similarly for the ownership and rental portion of the Personal Consumer Expenditures index. Does this help explain why housing affordability is a big part of the affordability issue in Vermont and America?
What is the way you have chosen to measure housing affordability, for ownership? What role does data availability play? Why is mthis a particularly good indicator of the affordability in the market for first time purchases? As well as home purchases generally?
What does your measure of affordability tell us?
What should we know about mobility in the housing market — both upsizing, and downsizing? Household size. Income. Availability? Mortgage interest rate lock.
Why is income such an important factor in affordability? Is there any particular magic in the ration of 30 percent? What ways do young families adjust their budgets to afford home ownership?
Does this help us understand the difference between housing affordability and affordable housing? Is perhaps the most affordable housing, and existing home, older and perhaps in need of substantial maintenance and repair? Is this another opportunity for first time home buyers, particularly those who can make repairs themselves?
What role do property taxes play in housing affordability? Are they part of the 30 percent threshold for ownership, along with mortgage payments and insurance?
Do government programs that reduce downpayment requirements, make home purchases more affordable? This doesn’t necessarily increase lender risk, except when prices begin to fall. Then lender risk increases substantially. What is leverage, and how does amplify both equity gains and equity losses?
What is the role of energy cost in housing affordability — both owner-occupied and rental?
What is the role of tax deductibility of interest and property taxes in ownership affordability, and in how the market price of homes is determined?
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