#48 Mike Hathorne: The Great Housing Reversal - It's not a housing shortage, but a mismatch.

Mike Hathorne spent 30 years in real estate and development trying to understand why the industry keeps building the wrong thing. His answer is in his book, The Great Housing Reversal.It's not a housing shortage. It's a housing mismatch. 64% of American households are one or two people. Over half the housing stock has three or more bedrooms. Mike walks through the three simultaneous trends reshaping who needs a home in America, why the development industry hasn't caught up, and what the neighborhoods people actually want look like.We also talk about the LDS ward study that revealed what happens to communities built on monolithic housing over time, the Harvard research showing that access across socioeconomic lines raises lifetime earnings by 20%, and what it looks like when a developer finally builds the kind of place the data has been pointing toward for decades.Mike recently relocated to Northwest Arkansas to join High Street, a traditional neighborhood development firm. He's also one of the clearest thinkers I've met on the relationship between how we build neighborhoods and how we live in them.Chapters00:00 Introduction00:44 Mike's background: 30 years in development and the path that led to the book03:10 Housing mismatch, not shortage05:00 The numbers: 64% of households are 1-2 people vs. 54% of homes with 3+ bedrooms07:33 Three simultaneous disruptors: fertility rates, marriage rates, and an aging population14:43 Zoning: 75% of residential land locked into single-family20:07 The comps problem: why real estate financing runs backwards from innovation27:29 Placemaking takes longer: lessons from Wheeler District32:28 What supply that matches the market actually looks like36:35 Connectedness is the new luxury42:45 The LDS ward study: why diverse housing makes resilient neighborhoods49:00 When communities can't support themselves, government fills the gap53:47 Personal stories: when mixed neighborhoods change lives57:18 Finding your tribe: Mike's move to Northwest Arkansas and CNU 34CONNECT WITH MIKE HATHORNEhttps://www.amazon.com/Great-Housing-Reversal-American-Dream/dp/B0G1FG4PXN greathousingreversal.substack.com linkedin.com/in/hathorneCNU 34, Northwest Arkansas (May 12-16): cnu.org/cnu-34CONNECT WITH AUSTIN TUNNELLNewsletter: https://playbook.buildingculture.com/ / austintunnell / austin-tunnell-2a41894a / austintunnell CONNECT WITH BUILDING CULTUREhttps://www.buildingculture.com/ / buildingculture / build_culture / buildculture