美国已经有约2,200万栋可负担房屋，约占全部自住型住房的四分之一，售价低于20万美元，遍布费城、孟菲斯、圣路易斯、埃尔帕索，以及芝加哥、辛辛那提、底特律等中西部旧城。作者指出，这些城市二十世纪下半叶人口曾明显萎缩，但在高温与高成本压力下，南部与沿岸人口外溢有回流心脏地带的趋势。相比之下，全美近况是房价自疫情前上涨约60%，而《哈佛大学联合住房研究中心》估算缺口达约400万栋，因此政策长期偏重新建，忽略大量现有低价存量。
真正阻断首次置业者的不是需求，而是小额房贷失效。研究显示，自2008年金融危机后，金额低于15万美元的小额按揭发放在2004至2021年间几乎腰斩，下降近70%。金融机构停止这类贷款并非单纯不愿意，而是审核固定成本、Dodd-Frank后合规成本上升与银行整并，使7.5万美元贷款的发放成本接近7.5十万美元贷款但利润却大幅较低；而97%首次购房者仍需按揭。圣路易斯超过40%自住屋低于15万美元，但研究访谈的十户中仅2户拿到传统房贷；该市北部小额按揭在2007年的484笔降至2022年的90笔。
问题更深的是老屋修缮。二战后超过70%新建住宅面积低于1,400平方英尺（约130平方米），但如今仅剩8%，大量屋龄逾75年的房屋需修缮且难以通过传统审核。许多家庭缺乏改造资金，联邦FHA 203(k)贷款使用率亦不足1%，形成先难以贷款、再难修缮的恶性循环。底特律约有68,000套空置房，2020至2021年间85%的交易价低于10万美元，但仅19%由按揭资助，Anika Goss指出某些社区自2008年后几乎没有新房贷。相对而言，底特律Home Mortgage Program、芝加哥Resurrection Project（最高7.5万美元可宽恕修缮贷款）、Ohio的CHN Housing Partners，以及Kentucky非营利Fahe，搭配白宫关于可负担按揭的新执行令、参议院《21st Century ROAD to Housing》以及拟议《Whole-Homes Repair Act》，显示可透过修缮导向融资与政策改革扩大供给。
The United States already has about 2.2 million affordable homes, roughly one quarter of all owner-occupied housing, priced below US$200,000 in places such as Philadelphia, Memphis, St. Louis, El Paso, and especially in Midwestern legacy cities like Chicago, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Those cities lost population in the late 20th century, but climate stress and higher costs are now pushing some migration back toward the heartland. At the same time, national housing prices are about 60% higher than before the pandemic, while the Joint Center at Harvard estimates a shortage of about 4 million homes, so policy has over-emphasized new construction and undercounted existing stock already within reach.
The bottleneck is not demand but broken small-dollar credit. Since the 2008 financial crisis, loans below US$150,000 have collapsed, falling nearly 70% from 2004 to 2021. Banks withdrew not from bad intent but because underwriting fixed costs, post-Dodd-Frank compliance burdens, and banking consolidation made a US$75,000 loan nearly as costly to process as a US$750,000 loan, with far lower margins. Since 97% of first-time buyers rely on mortgages, creditworthy families are blocked when lenders decline small loans. In St. Louis, over 40% of owner-occupied homes are valued under US$150,000, yet among ten interviewed households only 2 got a conventional mortgage; small-dollar originations in the city’s north side fell from 484 in 2007 to 90 in 2022.
The constraint is reinforced by housing condition. In the post–World War II era, over 70% of new homes were under 1,400 square feet (about 130 m²), but only 8% now are, leaving a large stock of 75-plus-year-old properties needing repairs and often failing lending standards. Many households cannot fund required upgrades, and federal rehabilitation finance is thin, with fewer than 1% of FHA 203(k) recipients using it. Detroit has about 68,000 vacant units, with 85% of 2020–21 sales below US$100,000 but only 19% mortgage-financed, and Anika Goss notes some neighborhoods had no mortgage originations after 2008. Local models such as the Detroit Home Mortgage Program, Chicago’s Resurrection Project (repair loans up to US$75,000), Ohio’s CHN Housing Partners, and Kentucky-based Fahe, along with the Trump administration’s mortgage-credit executive order, the Senate 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, and the proposed Whole-Homes Repair Act, demonstrate a scalable path through repair financing, underwriting reform, and targeted capital flow.