Can Government Make Homeownership More Affordable Without Making It Riskier?
Homeownership has long represented an important part of the American Dream: the opportunity to build financial security, establish roots and create something lasting for future generations.
But can government make that dream more attainable simply by encouraging lenders to offer cheaper or more widely available credit?
In a new essay for Learn Liberty, Northwood University Associate Professor Dr. Alex Tokarev, Northwood alumna and Stossel TV producer Kristin Tokarev, and current Northwood student Allison Trudell examine that question through the lens of economics, risk and lessons from the 2008 financial crisis.
Their essay, “Chasing the American Dream — or Destroying It?,” considers President Donald Trump’s March 2026 executive order intended to improve the availability and affordability of mortgage credit. The order calls for modernizing the mortgage process, reducing regulatory burdens and promoting greater competition among lenders.
The authors recognize the potential benefits of several proposed reforms. Electronic signatures, remote notarization and digital loan processing, for example, could reduce administrative costs and make purchasing a home faster and more convenient.
However, they caution that greater efficiency should not be confused with reduced financial risk.
Mortgage rates and lending standards communicate important information about a borrower’s likelihood of repaying a loan, the authors explain. When policies weaken that relationship—or encourage institutions to approve mortgages without adequately accounting for risk—the resulting costs do not disappear. They may instead be transferred to responsible borrowers, financial institutions, investors or taxpayers.
The authors compare the principle to automobile insurance. Charging drivers identical premiums regardless of their driving records would force cautious motorists to subsidize riskier ones and could ultimately raise costs for everyone. Mortgage markets, they argue, operate according to the same underlying economic logic.
The essay also looks to the housing bubble and financial crisis of the 2000s as a warning against policies that encourage artificially inexpensive credit or increasingly risky lending. Although today’s financial system includes stronger capital requirements and more conservative underwriting practices, the fundamental relationship between risk and price remains unchanged.
Rather than attempting to make housing more affordable by obscuring or redistributing lending risk, the authors encourage policymakers to address barriers that restrict the housing supply. Reducing unnecessary regulations, controlling inflation, supporting entrepreneurship and fostering economic growth would allow more homes to be built while helping families increase their incomes.
“Helping families buy homes is a worthy goal,” the authors conclude. “Helping families purchase homes they can actually afford is an even better one.”
The collaboration itself reflects Northwood University’s commitment to developing principled leaders who can apply free-market reasoning to consequential public-policy questions. Trudell, an accounting major from Hemlock, Michigan, contributed to the piece alongside a Northwood professor and graduate working in national media.
Kristin Tokarev earned both a Bachelor of Business Administration in economics and a Master of Science in business analytics from Northwood. She now produces content for journalist John Stossel’s Stossel TV, covering public policy, market trends and individual liberty.
Dr. Tokarev teaches economics and philosophy at Northwood, where his work explores free enterprise, individual freedom, personal responsibility and the institutions that support a prosperous society.
Together, the three authors argue that the American Dream is best protected not by policies that conceal economic realities, but by markets in which prices convey honest information, individuals make responsible choices and entrepreneurs are free to expand opportunity.
Read “Chasing the American Dream — or Destroying It?” at Learn Liberty, which is powered by Students for Liberty.