The U.S. needs more affordable housing – where to put it is a bigger battle

Dueling signs dot Virginia's Arlington County as residents debate the zoning reform proposal. This photo first appeared in DCist. Click here to read that story. (Margaret Barthel / WAMU/ DCist)

Tara Siegel and her partner love living in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, D.C., but they’d really like more space than the two-bedroom apartment they rent. Recently they started browsing on Zillow for a place to buy.

“We saw a lot of homes,” Siegel says, “but when we brought it back down to what we could afford, what our price range was, suddenly all the homes disappeared.”

It was a rude surprise. The couple makes above the local median household income, which is more than $120,000. They knew houses can approach a million dollars, but it turned out that even tw0- or three-bedroom condos are too pricey.