Lack of Housing As a Moral Crisis and Science, Faith, and Reason Bible

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
The issues that matter most, right here, The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio.

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Mayor Mamdani announced the five planned city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough, will offer 30 percent discounts on core baskets of healthy supplies, including vegetables, meat, seafood, bread, milk, rice, and beans. Today, he explained how those discounts will work.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:28)
Once a month, our five city-run grocery stores will set prices for this core set of goods at 30 percent below typical retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks.
The savings will last for the entire month. That means no weekly fluctuations nor sticker shock at the checkout line. Not for our seniors living on fixed incomes, nor for the parents who rely on a regular supply of apple slices to keep toddler tantrums at bay.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:51)
It's The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio.

**Drew Mariani** (0:55)
Yeah, that was CBS New York reporting on the 30% discounts to be found at five city-run grocery stores in New York. And I do want to talk about this with you coming up in a few minutes. We'll dive into these grocery stores. I find it, I never thought I'd see a government-run grocery store in our country here. Imagine walking to a grocery store owned by your city instead of a private business. Of course, prices are lower, shelves are stocked. Politicians promise you're going to save money, right? It's a good deal. Who doesn't want that? I want to pay less for meat and cheese. Sounds appealing.
Is it sustainable? That's the question. So today, a little bit later, we'll explore what's going on in New York City with the mayor there and his proposal for city-owned grocery stores. The argument for it, there's a lot of people who say, hey, we can't afford it any other way. There's a lot of concern surrounding it, but I also love history, you know that. I want to go back and I'll show you what history does with government-run enterprises. But I also want to talk about housing. And I saw a really fascinating article that made me think, I never thought of housing as a moral issue. I guess in some respects it is.
The number for first-time adults trying to buy a home, 40 years of age. I threw that stat a few times at you, right? Why are so many couples delaying marriage, postponing children, deciding to have fewer kids? Could it be directly related to housing? National Association of Realtors reports that for the average first-time homebuyer, now at least 40 years of age, I was in my 20s when I bought my first house. Nick was in his 30s when he bought his, my producer here. So the average price of her home climbed above 400,000. Today's mortgage rates and monthly housing costs, you know, it's $5,000 once you include the taxes and insurance. Depends where you live, really. California is a lot more. You know, maybe West Virginia is a lot less. Depends where you're looking at. But that's the average that the National Association of Realtors has thrown out.
If you're looking to buy a house, you might see the shocking sticker price. CBS News will share a little bit more on some of these numbers. Listen.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:06)
The latest data shows us existing home sales were down 2.4% in June. And the median price of an existing home, you see it right here, is the highest it's ever been, $440,600.

**Drew Mariani** (3:20)
There you go. You hear the numbers. The question is why, right? Housing shortages, they don't happen overnight. It's really the result of several factors coming together. I was having this conversation over the weekend with somebody. A lot of the baby boomers now, they're staying in their homes. They're staying there longer after retirement. So the supply has been reduced. A lot of boomers. I saw an article too. I think it was last week. I was away for a couple of days.
I was reading something about how they're buying bigger houses. They're actually buying big houses, I guess because they can, right? Interest rates were low. But builders continue to face challenges. They've got zoning restrictions, permit delays, labor shortages, regulation. It adds to the construction costs, and at the same time, population growth, right? We've got a lot of both legal and unauthorized, if you will, illegal immigration has increased. And we talked to Wendi Mochalski, a Realtor, a Will Mouse. It was two weeks ago, maybe last week it was. It's just about the impact of immigration on the cost of rent and on housing.
So it's very basic economics, right?
You've got too many people chasing too few homes. So that's what you have. That's why this matters beyond economics. When young people cannot afford a home, when marriage is delayed, when people are not having kids because they can't afford a large family, at least for what they've always hoped for, that's a problem. That's why Patrick Brown of the Ethics and Public Policy Center argues that housing isn't merely an economic issue, really is a family issue, right? It's about whether the next generation could build a stable life, put down roads, raise children, insecure communities. That's always been the American dream.