If you thought the 2006 housing bubble was bad for affordability, you might want to sit down for this one. A prominent real estate CEO says the economic policies deployed during Covid-19 have created an affordability crisis that's actually worse than the pre-financial crisis peak.

When The Cure Creates Its Own Problem

Sean Dobson, CEO of the Amherst Group, put it bluntly at the ResiDay conference: "We've probably made housing unaffordable for a whole generation of Americans." Speaking with ResiClub's Lance Lambert, Dobson explained that the country is now dealing with the consequences of "the cost of economic policy response to COVID," according to Fortune.

His argument? Emergency stimulus measures and ultralow interest rates inflated home prices far beyond what typical families can actually afford. It's one of those situations where the medicine had some serious side effects.

The Numbers Tell A Grim Story

Dobson didn't mince words about where we are now. Affordability has "never been as bad as it is today," he said, pointing out that the share of income needed for a typical FHA mortgage has climbed higher than even the mid-2000s housing frenzy.

Amherst's estimates show that principal, interest, taxes and insurance now eat up roughly 43% of median income. That's well above historical norms, and it's the result of a toxic combination: pandemic-era monetary policy, surging asset prices and wage growth that just hasn't kept pace.

"You're so far away from fair value," Dobson said. He added that only major shifts in prices, rates or incomes could bring relief, and none of those look likely in the near term.

Trump's Mortgage Proposal Gets Hammered

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's proposed solution—50-year mortgages—has sparked fierce backlash from an unlikely coalition of conservatives, economists and lawmakers.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) warned the plan would trap families "in debt forever" and instead called for limits on corporate home-buying and capital gains tax cuts.

Investor Kevin O'Leary was equally skeptical, calling the plan unrealistic. With inflation elevated and interest rates unlikely to fall meaningfully, he argued that borrowers would end up paying far more over the life of the loan just to shave down monthly payments. His colorful take? "You will be dead before the mortgage is paid off."

From the other side of the aisle, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) argued that Trump's tariffs were already pushing housing costs higher, making both building and buying homes more expensive. In her view, the administration's policies are moving in exactly the wrong direction.

It's a rare moment when politicians and investors from across the spectrum agree on something: extending mortgage terms to half a century probably isn't the answer to an affordability crisis created by easy money and inflated asset prices.