Housing issues may be among the most complicated and important issues policymakers face.

In order for local economies to grow, they need workers, and those workers need places to live. And they can't just be any old place. They need to be places they can afford to live, and want to live. But that's not easy. A home or apartment building built today might stand for a century or more, but the housing expectations of the public shift from generation to generation.

That's one point Adrian Cummings, president of the Grand Forks-based Forx Builders Assocation, made on this episode of Plain Talk. He pointed out that, while North Dakota isn't yet a state where most people rent, rather than own, their homes, we're moving in that direction, particularly among younger generations.

Where older generations prioritized the traditional "white picket fence" dream of owning a single-family home, both as a place to live and a way to secure an asset that can provide financial security for later in their lives, younger generations invest for their future differently, and are trending toward eschewing the burdens of homeownership in favor of renting.

"I think that, for a long time, your home was your investment policy, and it was your retirement policy, for particularly people even older than my parents," he said. "I think that there are other investment opportunities available to young professionals where they don't feel as large of a rush to get into a home as a retirement asset because they have other options."

Cummings talked about the workforce and economic challenges builders are facing, and the struggle to build affordable -- he prefers the term "attainable" -- housing, and how he feels the state can help. He thinks a Bank of North Dakota program that facilitates the financing of development would go a long way to help, since one of the biggest friction points to development now is how cost-intensive it is.

Also on this episode, guest co-host Rep. Zac Ista and I discuss President Donald Trump's renewed hostilities toward Canada and their potential impacts on North Dakota, and we respond to listener feedback.

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