My reflections on Fortune’s interview with Amherst CEO Sean Dobson (Nov. 15, 2025)
Reference: Sean Dobson, Fortune Magazine, “Why Housing Affordability Is So Bad, According to Amherst CEO Sean Dobson” (11/15/25).
Summary of the Article
In his interview with Fortune, Sean Dobson — CEO of Amherst, one of the largest single-family rental operators in the U.S. — outlines the key forces behind today’s severe housing affordability crisis. His main points include:
- Housing costs have exploded while incomes have not kept up. Since 2019, the all-in cost of owning a home (mortgage, taxes, insurance) has risen dramatically — sometimes 70–80%.
- Supply shortages are structural, not temporary. Land scarcity, high construction costs, permitting delays, labor shortages, and slow zoning processes all restrict new supply.
- Mortgage-finance regulations are rigid, limiting ownership opportunities for middle-income households that don’t fit conventional underwriting models.
- Local zoning and NIMBY policies worsen supply gaps. Impact fees, long CEQA timelines, low-density zoning, and community resistance prevent meaningful production of affordable homes.
- Rental housing plays a necessary role, especially for the middle class who earn too much for subsidies but can’t afford ownership under current conditions.
- Solutions require innovation: modular and off-site construction, ADUs, zoning reform, more flexible lending, and building at scale.
Dobson’s conclusion: affordability won’t fix itself. The U.S. has underbuilt for decades, and without structural changes and developer-driven innovation, the problem will intensify.
My Perspective as a Developer & Builder
1. The Middle Class Has Been Priced Out
Dobson is absolutely right that middle-income families are the ones suffering the most. They earn too much to qualify for government programs and too little to qualify for a $1 million starter home in San Diego. This is exactly the population market I build for in Southern California — families with stable incomes who are trying to compete in today’s overpriced ownership market.
In my own developments, I see the same pattern Dobson described: buyers are willing, responsible, financially steady, but the total homeownership cost (downpayment and monthly payments) collapsed under current interest rates and inflated home prices. For many, renting a new single-family home is now the only realistic path. That’s why Build-to-Rent (BTR) concept is no longer a niche asset class — it’s a structural housing solution for the middle class.
2. Supply Constraints Are Real — But They Are Also Opportunities
Dobson emphasizes that the supply shortage is systemic: land is scarce, construction costs remain high, and regulatory delays choke absorption. As a developer, I see these obstacles every day — and I also see opportunities embedded in them:
- Acquiring land early or off-market
- Leveraging SB 9, SB 684, SB 1123 and other California density tools
- Working in unincorporated county pockets with faster timelines
- Partnering with cities on public land or discounted parcels
- Building smaller, smarter floorplans instead of oversized traditional SFRs
Yes, supply is constrained. But that just means the developers must innovate in order to stay competitive and be able to deliver. The fewer homes California allows to be built, the more valuable every entitlement and building skill becomes. Every problem creates opportunity, just have to figure out how to solve the problem.
3. Rental Housing Is Not the Enemy — It’s the Pressure Valve
Some policymakers still blame “institutional landlords” for affordability problems, but the truth is exactly what Dobson points out: rentals exist because ownership has become unrealistic for a huge segment of Americans, and institutional money is just looking to invest in a stable sector that these same policymakers turned into the only viable housing alternative to homeownership through decades of red tape and overregulation.
In my own projects, rental demand is no longer coming from low-income households alone. It’s coming from:
- mid-career professionals
- families with children
- retired homeowners who sold but can’t afford to re-enter
- first-time buyers waiting out high rates
- relocating workers who want stability but not a mortgage
If the for-sale market continues to freeze, rental housing becomes the path to stability for these households. So, now it’s up to developers to deliver high-quality, attainable rentals to solve a real problem — not contribute to it.
4. Regulation Remains the Biggest Cost Driver
Dobson points out what every California developer already knows: fees, regulations, and process delays add astronomical costs to every unit, according to some estimates, 30-40% of the total cost of a new house! In some cities, fees alone add $80k–$120k per home before shovel hits dirt. VMT regulations drastically limit the number of units you can build on large parcels. CEQA regulations increase the timelines and costs of subdivision so much that it scares off most small to medium-sized developers. Inclusionary housing regulations, when finally adopted, will increase the cost of housing for the units in the subdivision that will be forced to subsidize those inclusionary units, it’s simple math! So, don’t blame the builders, ask from the government bureaucrats!
Interestingly enough, the latest data shows that the red states are seeing home prices either stable or declining because these states are doing great job in reducing red tape and allowing construction at the pace needed to keep up with the population demands, while pretty much ALL blue states (especially California) see the opposite picture: more and more building restrictions contribute to fewer permits, which in terms leads to housing shortages and to higher prices. Yes, keep voting blue, but then don’t complain!
So, again, the developers have to find ways to work in this political climate. Yes, political, because it shows that the issue has nothing to do with the economics of the building industry; it has to do with the state’s political environment. When California decides that gas appliances are not killing the environment, that solar should be optional, not mandated, and that some obscure plant or a puddle with a tiny fiery shrimp should not take preference over humans, we’ll see more housing developed, and the prices will stabilize.
5. Innovation Is No Longer Optional
Dobson mentions modular and off-site construction, creative financing, new underwriting approaches, and alternative zoning models. The industry is notoriously slow to adopt innovation, but the affordability crisis leaves us no choice. For my own pipeline, I see several viable approaches:
- Off-site framing and material prep to reduce build cycle times (savings on materials and cost of project financing)
- Smaller detached units and townhomes with smart interior space layout to stretch land yield
- Build-To-Rent (BTR) communities instead of traditional for-sale subdivisions provide the same feel of homeownership without the cost of homeownership
- Using SB 684 and SB 1123 to streamline small-lot subdivisions and avoid years of waiting for discretionary subdivision approvals
- Working with local housing authorities for mixed-use projects, commercial property repositioning and other creative use applications
- Public land + private capital partnerships through our First Key Foundation
The builders who innovate on project structure, zoning, and financing will define the next generation of Southern California housing.
Final Thoughts
Dobson’s interview reinforces what many of us already know from day-to-day development: the current housing system is not designed for the middle class, and the private sector must fill the gap. The problem is not going away — and it won’t be solved by the governor creating a task force and proclaiming his fight for housing affordability during his campaign, it won’t be solved by subsidies or by shoving inclusionary housing down the developers’ throat; the solution has to come from the market, from the trenches. It will be solved by:
- Developers willing to build smaller, smarter, faster
- Creative financing models
- Pro-housing zoning
- Scalable BTR communities
- Public-private partnerships
- Foundations and non-profits helping bridge the affordability gap
This is exactly the mission behind the work we are doing at Greenbuild and at First Key Foundation — and exactly why the next decade will belong to developers who adapt, innovate, and build for the middle-income families who have been left behind.
Reference: Sean Dobson, Fortune Magazine, “Why Housing Affordability Is So Bad, According to Amherst CEO Sean Dobson” (Nov. 15, 2025).
Alex Lisnevsky