In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Ed Pinto, senior fellow and co-director of the AEI Housing Center at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), for a fascinating look at how housing policy shapes the market and the world we live in. Tapping into his decades of experience in the housing and mortgage markets, Ed shares lessons from the 2008 bubble we can apply to today, uses data to examine the relative merits of different housing policies over the years, and gives his take on how to tackle affordability and homelessness. He also talks about why he’s optimistic about the housing market in the years to come.

About Ed Pinto

Edward J. Pinto is a senior fellow and co-director of the AEI Housing Center at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). A focus of his work continues to be the role of federal housing policy in the 2008 mortgage and financial crisis and how federal housing policy continues to create unwelcome distortions in the housing markets. More recently his research has focused on using light touch density to increase the supply of naturally affordable and inclusionary housing.

Before joining AEI, Mr. Pinto was an executive vice president and chief credit officer for Fannie Mae until the late 1980s. Today, he is frequently interviewed on radio and television and often testifies before Congress. His writings have been published in trade publications and the popular press, including in the American Banker, The Hill, RealClearPolitics, and The Wall Street Journal. In addition, as the director of the AEI Housing Center, he oversees the monthly publication of the AEI Housing Market Indicators, which has replaced AEI’s monthly Housing Risk Watch and AEI’s FHA Watch. 

Mr. Pinto has a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Featuring Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research

A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. The company now serves the largest Wall Street investment firms, banks, and tens of thousands of real estate professionals around the country. Mike's insights on the market have been featured in Forbes, New York Times, Bloomberg, Dallas Morning News, Seattle PI, and many other national media outlets.

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About Altos Research

The Top of Mind Podcast is produced by Altos Research.

Each week, Altos tracks every home for sale in the country - all the pricing, and all the changes in pricing - and synthesizes those analytics to make them available before becoming visible through traditional channels.

Schedule a demo to see Altos in action. You can also get a copy of our free eBook: How To Use Market Data to Build Your Real Estate Business.