The trigger could be anything, including new taxes on foreign buyers, stricter mortgage guidelines, rising interest rates, or simply that rising prices create an affordability roadblock for more and more people. What we take from this is that it is not higher interest rates and changes to mortgage lending guidelines that have had the greatest effect on housing demand.
Every day, I am mindful that the opportunities and prosperity of working people all across the country rest in part on our commitment to the prosaic words “maximum employment and price stability,” which, like policy work itself, belie the enormity of their effect. Maximum employment and stable low inflation benefit all Americans but are particularly important for those earning less.