School IB economics: White House moves to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here.

Specification:

• IB DP economics: Units 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

Read the article and then answer the questions:

White House moves to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes

Questions

• Define the term mortgage [2]

• Explain how home affordability has become an increasingly important issue for the White House amid a ‘wider cost-of-living crisis’ [4]

• Explain why shares in Blackstone and Builders First Source, which supplies building products, may have fallen by 5-6 per cent, following the announcement to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes [4]

• Using a demand and supply diagram, explain the impact of the ban on institutions buying single-family homes on the residential rental market in the USA [4]

• Using the data provided and your knowledge of economics, recommend a policy that the US government might consider to improve the affordability of housing for young Americans [10]

Mark Johnson, Sevenoaks School, InThinking/thinkIB