EP#76 Nick Andersen | Affordable Housing Isn't What You Think

About this episode

Jay Parsons interviews Nick Andersen to discuss the misconceptions surrounding affordable housing and the challenges in the current market.

There are no shortages of false narratives about affordable housing. From the buildings to the renters who live in them, they rarely match the public narratives about them. And also: Just because a developer can get tax credits to build affordable housing doesn't make it easier, either — especially in higher-supplied markets where affordable rents are colliding with market-rate rents due to rent declines associated with the highest supply wave since the 1970s. So how do LIHTC affordable housing still make deals work today, even in markets where affordable housings' actual rents are well below allowable rents (set based on incomes)? Rental housing economist Jay Parsons welcomes in Nick Andersen of Dominium, one of the nation's biggest builders of affordable housing to talk myths versus realities — and share tips of the trade on how affordable housing development can still work today. Additionally, on the topic of affordability and mythbusting, Jay shares his two favorite charts from the just-released State of the Nation's Rental Housing report from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. And for the "In the News" segment in this episode, Jay breaks down the latest on…

People in this episode

Host: Jay Parsons

Guest: Nick Andersen

Topics covered

• affordable housing
• myths vs realities
• LIHTC
• rental housing economics
• market-rate rents
• federal housing policy

Keywords

• affordable housing
• tax credits
• LIHTC
• rental market
• housing supply
• market-rate rents
• housing development
• federal policy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Dominium, Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies

Places: United States

More episodes of The Rent Roll with Jay Parsons

• EP#88 Alan King | The "Other" Berkshire · June 11, 2026 · 59 min
• EP#87 David Oelfke | Preferred Equity, Debt & Anything But Common Equity · June 4, 2026 · 60 min
• EP#86 Emily Watson | In-House vs. 3rd-Party Management · May 28, 2026 · 1h 2m
• EP#85 Rob Reid | What Still Pencils Out To Build? + The Art of Placemaking · May 21, 2026 · 1h 2m
• EP#84 Jesse Lederman | 4 Takeaways From Q1'26 SFR REITS' Earnings Calls · May 14, 2026 · 1h 8m
• EP#83 Alexander Goldfarb | 6 Takeaways From Q1'26 Multifamily REITS' Earnings Calls · May 7, 2026 · 1h 28m