02:40 PM EDT, 04/12/2024 (MT Newswires) -- At a time when housing prices are elevated due to tight supply, regulations and stigma tilted against affordable housing are impacting the effort to increase the inventory of available homes, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic, a voter on the Federal Open Market Committee in 2024, said Friday in prepared remarks at The Murphy Institute of Tulane University.

Bostic's speech did not include comments on the overall economy or monetary policy, but he noted that economies are generally more robust and monetary policy more effective when they are more inclusive, something that home affordability has made difficult.

"Like other data, our tools tell a pretty sobering story about affordability," Bostic said. "Nationally, a household that earns the median income-roughly $75,000 a year-must spend 41% of that just to own the median-priced home, which would cost about $359,000."

In Atlanta, that percentage is 38%, but in a region like Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, it is as high as 54%, according to the Atlanta Fed's Home Ownership Affordability Monitor. Generally, 30% is considered the maximum to be considered affordable, Bostic said.

There are similar issues with rents, Bostic noted, leading to high levels of eviction once the pandemic-era moratorium on evictions was lifted.

Efforts are being made to improve the supply of housing but are often being blunted by regulations.

Florida, for example, has made efforts to relax zoning restrictions to allow for more affordable housing, including in commercial and industrial zones, but there has been protest from some local governments and community groups, Bostic said.

"Furthermore, potential solutions to boost housing supply often raise concerns, ranging from a stigma attached to traditional notions of manufactured housing to basic resistance to greater density," Bostic said.

Also, while there is increased support for available housing, there has conversely been a tightening of regulations that has led to rising prices.

"A quick exercise by Atlanta Fed researchers revealed a tight correlation between the restrictiveness of land use regulation at the county and metro area levels and the unaffordability of housing, based on our Bank's affordability monitor," Bostic said. "Not surprisingly, perhaps, it appears that the tighter the regulatory environment, the costlier the housing market, broadly speaking."

A shift in mentality is needed to improve the housing shortage, Bostic suggested.

"Most of us say we want more housing yet, at the same time, we appear to be making it hard to get more housing," Bostic said. "This might sound oversimplified, but what it comes down to in the end is the relative value we place on various public and private goods in our communities and how those values manifest in policy and regulations."