Who Killed the Starter Home?

In this episode, I spoke with Professor Christopher Cowton, an expert in business ethics and co-author of a powerful paper on hypocrisy . Joining us from London, he helps unpack the moral tension at the heart of NIMBYism—when people who support progressive values push back on new housing in their own neighborhoods. Is it hypocrisy? Fear? Or something deeper? And how can philosophy help us talk abo...

In this episode, I spoke with the Honorable Judge Joe Small, retired presiding judge of the Tax Court of New Jersey. Judge Small breaks down how our property tax system, rooted in 1940s constitutional language, affects everything from starter home construction to school funding, and why it’s often lower- and middle-income families who end up footing the bill. We talk about what's broken, what coul...

In this episode, I spoke with Commissioner Jacquelyn Suárez of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA). As one of the state’s largest departments, DCA is on a mission to support residents, local governments, businesses, and community organizations through financial assistance, technical expertise, and smart policy—helping improve quality of life across New Jersey. I’ve personally bene...

In this episode, I spoke with Skip Schenker, who’s helping people turn fixer-uppers into dream homes by creating tools that simplify financing based on after-renovation value. Financing problems are a huge part of why starter homes are so rare—and Skip and his collaborators at Ready4Remodel.com and Renofi are working to change that.  

In this episode, I spoke with someone who’s actually seen starter homes for sale—Kol Peterson, an author , educator, and housing advocate based in Portland, Oregon. Thanks to Kol’s efforts, and the work of many other incredible advocates, Portland is seeing real change and real results . It’s a true success story we can all admire—and learn from.

  Lots of people have asked us: Why is it so expensive to build starter homes? In this episode, I spoke with Aaron Holm, who’s tackling that question head-on. He brings deep experience in technology and innovation to the construction industry—and he’s not afraid to challenge the status quo.    Spoiler alert, By the time your bids come in too high, it’s already too late.   We would like to hear wha...

In the final episode of our mini-series featuring conversations with brilliant millennials, I spoke with Shane Phillips, author of  The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach (and Keeping it There). We dug into what’s broken in the housing ladder—and what kinds of housing policy could help fix it. We would like to hear what you think about this conversation or if you have any...

I continued speaking with inspiring and brilliant millennials in this week’s episode. Natali Fani-Gonzalez is a first-term council member in Montgomery County, Maryland. With her love of numbers and community-centered leadership, she has already passed a well-balanced (yet controversial) rent control bill and an office-to-residential conversion law. She’s faced plenty of setbacks along the way, bu...

In this episode, I spoke with Daryl Fairweather. Dr. Fairweather is the chief economist at Redfin as well as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Academic Advisory Council. She explained the idea of Land Value Tax and how taxing land differently can help us incentivize denser and more sustainable development. 

In this episode, I spoke with Christian Calderon. Unlike our other guests, he isn’t working to build starter homes—he’s trying to buy one. Christian shares a powerful immigrant story and an unwavering belief in the American Dream. We were also joined by Chris Costa from Stevens & Lee , who helped shed light on the technical challenges Christian faced in the process of purchasing his home.

In this episode, I spoke with Matthew Kaplan, Cofounder and CEO of ReVireo , an energy efficiency and green building services company based in New Jersey. Matt and his team live and breathe sustainability as it relates to buildings. As a leader in the field, he shed light on how sustainable projects are approved and delivered—what’s not working, and what could be improved.   We would like to hear...

This is one of the most inspiring conversations I have had.    In this episode, I spoke with Burhan Azeem. He is the youngest city councilor in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Burhan worked tirelessly to remove costly parking minimums and expand zoning for 100% affordable housing projects. He is laser focused on legalizing multifamily housing up to six stories throughout the city, ensuring that Cambridg...

I’m thrilled to continue the conversations with brilliant millennials about housing and homeownership.   In this episode, I spoke with Iziah Thompson, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Community Service Society of New York, where he researches and advocates for housing policies aimed at improving the lives of low-income New Yorkers and strengthening urban communities. We discussed Community Land Trus...

As we continue in our series of conversations with brilliant Millennials, I spoke with Matt Mleczko. Dr. Mleczko received his Ph. D. in Population Studies and Social Policy from Princeton University where he conducted research as part of the The Eviction Lab. Matt also practices what he preaches - he can be found educating people about housing policy, attending public hearings supporting local pro...

This episode kicks off a series of conversations with millennials about housing and homeownership.   I spoke with Katie Brennan, a graduate of Rutgers University’s Master of Urban Planning program. She has worked for both nonprofit and governmental organizations—for example, she served as the Chief of Staff at the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. She is also running for public offic...

As we rethink the future of starter homes, we explore what truly matters to young buyers in their home searches—and what they’re willing to sacrifice. Spoiler alert: They might give up the car, but not the dog! In this episode, I spoke with Peter Dennehy, Senior Vice President at John Burns Research and Consulting. With over 20 years of personal experience and access to the extensive research cond...

Did your parents help you buy a starter home? Are you planning to help your child buy a starter home? In this episode I spoke with Joshua Wilton, broker and owner of Queenston Realty . He is planning to help his 3 kids and we talked about why.  In the interest of full transparency, Josh and I are partners in Princeton Home Connections , a company that designs and builds Accessory Dwelling Units.  

In this episode I spoke with Richard Kahlenberg. The New York Times called Richard, The Liberal Maverick Fighting Race-Based Affirmative Action . Dr. Kahlenberg works on helping improve educational outcomes for economically disadvantaged people of all races. He is the author or editor of 18 books, testified in front of the US congress and was an expert witness at the US supreme court. We talked ab...

In this episode, I spoke with Jacob Anbinder. His upcoming book, NIMBY Nation: The War on Growth That Created Our Housing Crisis and Remade American Politics, caught my attention. As a historian of American politics, Jacob has researched the root causes of NIMBYism—an essential topic for those of us working to create housing while facing NIMBY opposition every day. Jacob's research offers a wealth...

In this episode, I spoke with Randy Shaw, the executive director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that provides free legal services and housing for the homeless. Randy is also the editor of Beyond Chron and the author of six books. The book that caught my attention is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America —a must-read. Randy was...

In this episode I spoke with Edward Erfurt, the Director of Community Action at Strong Towns . Strong Towns is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping cities and towns of all sizes to be safe, livable, and inviting. Their incremental development advocacy is both practical and inspiring. Edward told me that to find the answer to who killed the starter home, we need to look back about 80 years...

In this episode I spoke with Deb Tantleff, the founding principal at https://www.tantumre.com. As a practitioner, Deb has developed over $2 billion dollars in construction of over 7,000 residential units throughout the state of NJ. She is also a housing advocate and chair of the NJ Builders Association.    Deb and I spoke about the barriers developers have to overcome trying to build new homes. I...

Aaron Lubeck wears many hats in the world of housing and urban development. He is a builder, planner, writer, policy advocate and educator. Check out his work at aaronlubeck.substack.com  and  southernurbanism.org .   We talked about strategies to help towns create buildings and communities that are unique and require no subsidy to be affordable. You should also hear Aaron's great explanation of t...