Why Affordable Housing Programs Miss the Mark

Affordable housing programs are designed to help more people buy homes—but are they using the wrong standard? In this episode, Bryan Lovell and Mark Milam examine why income-based limits like Area Median Income may exclude borrowers who still cannot afford the typical home in their market, and they propose using local home prices and price-to-income ratios to create more realistic eligibility guidelines. They also discuss the growing divide between homeowners and renters, why housing risks becoming a benefit reserved for the wealthy, and how mortgage professionals can better serve borrowers by asking the right questions, understanding their anxieties, and structuring solutions around their actual circumstances.