May 07, 2025

Tackling the Affordability Crisis with Dr. Arpit Gupta

37 minutes

In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Dr. Arpit Gupta of NYU’s Stern School of Business. The two discuss Dr. Gupta’s important research on housing affordability, and the causes and cures of our unaffordable housing market. They uncover insights about which local regulations are the most negative for affordable housing, surprising data about how property taxes impact families and the market, and how home equity will impact future economic downturns.

About Arpit Gupta

Arpit Gupta is a professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Professor Gupta's research interests focus on using large datasets to understand default dynamics real estate and household finance. He received his B.S. in math and econ at the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in Finance and econ from Columbia Business School.

Dr. Gupta has done really useful research on housing affordability. He’s studied the impact of housing regulation and taxation on affordability.

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

The ways in which regulation contributes to unaffordability in the housing market

Which types of local regulations are the most negative for housing affordability

Why low property taxes hurt young families

One surprising reason that Texas real estate is more affordable than California

What California does well and what it does poorly in the battle for affordability

Why New York’s AirBnB ban didn’t help affordability

How remote work has changed the housing market and what’s next

Related to this episode:

Arpit Gupta | LinkedIn

Arpit Gupta | X

Arpit Gupta

⁠Mike Simonsen | LinkedIn⁠

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Featuring Mike Simonsen, President of Altos

A true data geek, Mike founded Altos 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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The Top of Mind podcast features top real estate industry insiders and experts to unpack the most important housing, real estate, mortgage data and trends that are shaping the housing market. Hosted by Altos founder Mike Simonsen and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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