Why Technology Hasn’t Fixed the Housing Crisis

Billions have been flowing into a corner of the tech industry focused on the housing market. And now there are start-ups to help landlords manage properties, or homeowners manage sales, or tenants manage their packages.

But hardly any of it touches the central problem of housing: For many people, it costs too much.

“None of that investment, nor the solutions that those companies are offering, will fundamentally change the dynamic of the housing market in a way that increases housing affordability,” said Matt Hoffman, the vice president for innovation at the national housing nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners, surveying what venture capitalists have come to call “proptech.”