Affordable housing isn’t a buzzword — it’s a moving target. In this episode of Ten Minute Talks, Tai Christensen unpacks the affordability crisis reshaping the American housing market with Brena Nath. With median incomes hovering around $81,000 but median home prices requiring closer to $125,000 to qualify, the math isn’t adding up for most would-be buyers.
From pandemic displacement to the modern lock-in effect, Tai paints a clear picture of where the system is breaking down. More importantly, she offers solutions. Tai shares how her work on the Earned Equity Program is creating new paths to homeownership by helping underserved communities move into homeownership, even if they don’t qualify for traditional loans. This conversation is a call to action for housing professionals to think bigger, act bolder and serve broader.
From pandemic displacement to the modern lock-in effect, Tai paints a clear picture of where the system is breaking down. More importantly, she offers solutions. Tai shares how her work on the Earned Equity Program is creating new paths to homeownership by helping underserved communities move into homeownership, even if they don’t qualify for traditional loans. This conversation is a call to action for housing professionals to think bigger, act bolder and serve broader.
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00:00Now we're in a place where we have people who want to enter into that homeownership space,
00:06right? Want to buy their first home, but the inventory of first-time homebuyer product
00:11is quite limited. I'm super excited to be on this 10-minute talk. My guest today is no stranger to
00:26someone who I've had the pleasure of chatting with over the years, and she's also no stranger
00:31to the housing wire community, but still happy to introduce her. For those who don't know her,
00:36I am joined by Ty Christensen. She's the president at Arrive Home, and I'd be remiss not to share,
00:43she's also a 2024 woman of influence, which is a huge accomplishment. So congratulations on that,
00:49and welcome to the show. Well, thank you. I'm super excited to be here today, and thanks for
00:54having me, Brenna. Yeah. The topic that we're jumping into today is one that is particularly
01:01important every year, but for this year and this segment, I think there's details that people need
01:08a resetting of what does this topic, that topic being affordable housing, look like this year?
01:14What is the current state of it? What is the makeup? What does that even mean? Because
01:18conversations that I had had with different people over the years is that affordable housing can mean
01:23so many different things to so many people. So can you zero in to start this conversation?
01:29What is the affordable housing part that you're passionate about? What does it mean to you?
01:33And what is the current state of it right now in 2025? So affordable housing is, as you said,
01:40kind of a catch-all term. And depending upon who you're speaking with and the demographic that they
01:44live in in the country and also how much money they make, that can mean a lot of different things,
01:48right? But basically affordable housing is housing that is available and accessible to median income
01:55borrowers, right? The average American in years past has been able to afford a home based on the median
02:02income throughout the country, right? A median income throughout the country right now is about $81,000,
02:07right? So not great, but not bad. It's actually advanced quite a bit since 2020. That was the last
02:14median household study they did. It's gone about $6,000 in the last five years, which is wonderful,
02:20except for the fact that housing prices has jumped so substantially. So the average price of housing
02:26in 2024 was $420,000 for the median income averaged American household price. Caveat to that is, again,
02:37average American income is only $81,000. So if you're just going on broad numbers here,
02:41you need about $100,000 to $125,000 a year in order to qualify comfortably and with the best interest
02:47rate for that $420,000 home. So therein lies the discrepancy of the affordable housing issue,
02:54right? So in the areas of the country where you see higher wages, you know, you think California,
02:59Washington, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, you get paid a lot more on those coastal states,
03:04right? But the average home price is considerably higher. You go inwards in the country,
03:10the home prices are a lot more affordable, right? You're going to get homes at that $420,000, $375,000
03:15even in some of the middle country states. But the annual income in those states has not increased
03:22to the amount where that's affordable and attainable for a lot of people that are not in what's considered
03:26to be a move-up home situation. Move-up home means already owned property, I'm going to sell this
03:32property, take the equity out, put that down on a new home and move up into a better home,
03:37which would be in this $420,000 price range. You're a young child or a young student, right? I mean,
03:43they're children to me because I'm in my 40s. But if you're a young person starting out, right? You're
03:48done with college, you want to get your first condo or townhouse, you've got student loans, or maybe
03:53you've started a new business. Those types of loan amounts are typically unattainable for you.
03:59Additionally, there's some underwriting issues that you may have as well if you don't have, say,
04:02two years of bank statements that you've been earning income with this self-employed income,
04:06or you've started a new job, things like that. So those types of things do add to the affordability
04:11crisis as well. But long story short, depending upon where you are, affordable housing can mean
04:16a lot of different things. Yeah. Well, those stats that you just threw out show so much because it's
04:22one thing to your point that like maybe income has gone up, but you have to look at that in conjunction
04:29with where does home prices stand right now? Where are you living? There's so many variables
04:34that are impacting affordability. What would you say are the biggest challenges or threats that are,
04:40I mean, on top of just the fact that those variables are at play, what are the biggest
04:44challenges and threats currently that affordable housing is facing? Absolutely. So we all know that
04:50during the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced a lot of displacement, right? Younger people, older people
04:56moving across the country, moving inland, moving to different places because they had remote work.
05:01While that was wonderful for people that were selling their home in Washington state or California
05:06and choosing to move to Utah or Colorado or Oklahoma, they also brought with them their massive amount of
05:13equity, right? To these inner states that typically don't see these types of shift in the housing values
05:19going up so substantially so quickly. So that kind of started the, in my opinion, that was the catalyst
05:26to where we are now. Secondly, we have an inventory shortage, right? Again, a lot of people used to
05:31work on the coast. They're living in condos or townhomes or moving inward. They're buying up
05:35properties that were single home properties. Now we're in a place where we have people who want to
05:41enter into that home ownership space, right? Want to buy their first home, but the inventory of first
05:47first time home buyer product is quite limited because it's already been snatched up. And there's 80%
05:53of Americans that have a rate today that is below 5%. And of that 80%, 65% of them have a rate below 3%.
06:03So we're not talking about people who are really excited to give up their property right now,
06:10right? Because not only a price is going up, but interest rates have gone up as well. So they're
06:14thinking, why would I sell this? I'm never going to get this mortgage run again. So they're staying put,
06:19right? Additionally, you've got elders in our community that would have typically maybe sold their homes
06:24or moved into a long care facility. But again, with the income, they're not able to afford those
06:31downsized condos that they would be getting in the past because they have superseded the amount that
06:36they can afford to pay, regardless of the equity amount that they have in their current home in a lot of
06:41situations. So for me personally, I would say those were the two things that were really the catalysts to the
06:47affordable housing crisis that we're in now. It's funny looking at our own personal story. And I
06:53think each of us at housing where I have this, I'm sure even within arrive, you guys have this when
06:57you are not only in the industry, but you are a consumer of the industry. And I am one of the
07:03people with a below 3% rate that I'm like, yeah, I don't, I don't want to give this up. I, I, you know,
07:09maybe I wasn't planning for this to be my forever home, but I will be here longer than I anticipated
07:14because it is hard to give that up. Oh my gosh. We built this house we're in right now in 2020.
07:21We decided to build this home because the land we wanted to buy was not available yet. So we were
07:25going to build this as a rental and then purchase the lot we wanted to and build our forever home
07:31on that. Well, by the time we closed, we signed our purchase contract in February of 2020, closed
07:36escrow in August and everything in that six months, the entire housing industry has changed. So let's just
07:42say pretty sure I'm going to get buried in the backyard. We are not leaving. We're not having a
07:48275 interest rate. Like I, what am I supposed to? And if I build the dream home I want for the price
07:55range I was intending on staying in, I'm going to be building a home that's smaller than the one we're
07:59in right now. That's how much the values have changed. So there's a lot, it's not just me and you.
08:04I mean, a lot of people that arrive are in this exact same situation and a lot of Americans are in this
08:08situation, which again, just leads to those inventory challenges that I was talking about.
08:13It's all such an important, that's sometimes part of the part that I flag, even in this affordable
08:18housing conversation that you have, it's, it's the whole picture that you need to look at. It's the
08:25people like, um, us 30 somethings who just have kids that don't want to move and we're not maybe
08:30going to move up with that second kid. And it, how does that trickle down the funnel and to impact
08:34everything? What stood out to me about you and about arrive in what you guys are doing is there
08:42are some creative options still out there. I think we've just kind of painted maybe, I wouldn't say a
08:47dreary picture, but a picture of like, where, where do we go from here? Like we, we've been in this for a
08:52while since COVID. There's a lot going on in the economy right now. There's, I, I know I have a handful
08:57of friends who are trying to buy a house and like, when is this going to change? So you've seen some
09:01and are also helping with some creative promising solutions. How do we address these challenges?
09:06Yeah. So for sure. I mean, creativity is really going to be the thing that propels us out of the
09:12situation we're in. We can't just look to traditional financing options anymore because the people that
09:17qualify for those traditional financing options are typically in a home right now, right? So we've got
09:21to get creative. So at arrive, we have created a program called the earned equity program. And this
09:27program is marketed towards very specific communities. We marketed towards the ITIN community because they
09:33cannot qualify for traditional financing, but they are taxpaying citizens that have rights to live in
09:37America. Additionally, the other part of our product that we're marketing to consumers is more driven by the
09:44non-QM space. So it's a non-QM product, the earned equity program. And so that enables us to market towards
09:51self-employed individuals, maybe newly divorced individuals, right? Maybe you have some type of
09:56a tax burden, which is not too much for you to maintain your tax payments, but you wouldn't be
10:02able to qualify for traditional financing, right? Maybe you're part of the gig economy and your income
10:07is very fluid, right? Maybe you just have a lot of cash and you don't have a lot of credit. This is what
10:14we built this program for, the consumers that don't fit in that traditional FHA or conventional credit
10:21box, but are still credit worthy. In order to qualify these individuals, we partnered with a
10:27company called FormFree. And FormFree has created something that they call a RICCI score. RICCI stands
10:33for Residual Index Knowledge Indicator. And so what it does is it gives, the consumer gives us access to
10:40their bank account. It's actually an app that they get on. They just enter their bank account
10:44information. RICCI immediately pulls two years worth of bank statements. And within 90 seconds,
10:51it analyzes the bank statements and gives us a score of their residual income every month,
10:57how much money they have left over. And that's solely based on their bank account balances. It's
11:02able to analyze their spending habits, their saving habits when they have more money or less money.
11:07And based on that, we are able to provide them with a pre-approval and a range of a home that
11:12they could purchase. I love that call out because to me, what you just listed are the extra examples
11:21that maybe people don't automatically think of when you think of affordable housing. But there's a huge
11:26and various verticals of people who aren't able to buy a home right now. The person who just got
11:32divorced, the person who's looking at the gig economy, great examples of someone who it is out
11:37of reach and without these creative, innovative ways that kind of look past with the ways we've
11:43already done it, are able to get people in home. So we are out of time, which is a bummer. I think
11:48there's a lot of great things that you and I could dive into. I've been thankful to continue this
11:51conversation over the years with you, and I know we'll have more of them. So thanks for joining me,
11:56Ty. Thanks for having me today, Brenna.