Housing affordability in the U.S. is under intense pressure. Rising costs are limiting mobility, restricting credit access, and reducing economic opportunity nationwide. Supply shortages, escalating construction costs, rising insurance premiums, high mortgage rates, and investor activity are pushing homeownership and rental prices beyond reach for millions. Compounding the problem are the cost effects and uncertainty generated by changes to tariff and immigration policy. The result: deeper affordability challenges and reduced housing availability.
This webinar will cover:
- The current state of housing affordability
- Key drivers behind rising housing costs
- The effect of emerging demographic trends on supply and demand
- Leveraging scenario modeling to forecast insurance risk and housing costs
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SpeakersJohn Comeau Policy Economist Council of Federal Home Loan Banks
Cris deRitis Deputy Chief Economist Moody's Analytics
Doug Duncan Former SVP & Chief Economist Fannie Mae
Kelly Smith Managing Director, Government Moody's
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John Comeau is the Policy Economist for the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks, where he focuses on policy analysis, research, and the U.S. economy. Comeau is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with more than 20 years of economic, analytic, and housing finance experience. Prior to joining the Council, Comeau served as a Financial Economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Senior Financial Analyst at the Federal Housing Administration, Senior Economist at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Model Validation Analyst at U.S. Bank.
Cristian deRitis, Deputy Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics, specializes in assessing the economy’s impact on household finance, housing, credit markets and public policy. Named on two U.S. patents for credit modeling, he created loss forecasting and stress testing systems for financial institutions. He joined Moody’s in 2008, after serving as a director with Fannie Mae. He also was an adjunct professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Doug Duncan, an award-winning economist, is a nationally recognized authority on the economy, financial markets, monetary policy, and real estate finance.
He has been sought out for his insights by leading broadcast news networks NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNBC, Bloomberg, Yahoo! Finance, PBS, and C-SPAN.
Dr. Duncan has also been cited frequently by leading national and trade media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, American Banker, National Mortgage News, and HousingWire.
His economic analysis and forecasts have earned him recognition for their accuracy. These include the Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast accuracy, the National Association of Business Economics forecast award (twice), and the Pulsenomics Crystal Ball Award for home price forecast accuracy. Dr. Duncan has also been included in Bloomberg Business Week’s Top 50 Most Powerful People in Real Estate and Inman News’ Top 100 Most Influential Voices in Real Estate.
Based in Cape Coral, Florida, Duncan founded BizOutlook in 2025. He was Chief economist at Fannie Mae, the largest source of housing finance in the U.S., for 16 years.
Prior to that, Duncan worked the Mortgage Bankers Association where he was the industry trade group’s chief economist for seven years.
Dr. Duncan serves on 2 corporate boards, is a Professional Fellow at the Homer Hoyt Institute, and serves as a Trustee at North Dakota State University.
Dr. Duncan received his Bachelors and Masters Degrees at North Dakota State University and his PhD at Texas A&M University (all in agricultural economics).
Kelly Smith is a Managing Director and head of the Government and Education segment for the Americas region at Moody’s Analytics. She has been with Moody’s for 20 years in various sales management roles within the organization such as Senior Director of Credit Solutions and Senior Director of Relationship Management. She started her career at Moody’s as part of the Structured Finance team. Before joining Moody’s Analytics, Kelly worked at Thomson Financial and Bloomberg.