Over the past year, frustration over the cost of housing in the United States has become a centerpiece of the presidential race, a focus of government policy and an agonizing nationwide problem.

Conor Dougherty, who covers housing for The Times, explains why the origin of the housing crisis is what makes it so hard to solve.

Guest: Conor Dougherty, who covers housing for The New York Times.

Background reading:

Why too few homes get built in the United States.
A decade ago, Kalamazoo — and all of Michigan — had too many houses. Now it has a shortage.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How the Cost of Housing Became So Crushing

The Daily

How the Cost of Housing Became So Crushing