Why Housing Feels Hopeless

The David Frum Show

The Atlantic

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ ? minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with reflections on the upcoming 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and what Donald Trump’s recent statements about “Victory Day” reveal about how America is forgetting the meaning of peace, cooperation, and democratic leadership. Then David is joined by Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, for a candid look at the broken state of the U.S. housing market. Kelman explains why both buyers and sellers are miserable, how pandemic-era mortgage rates have frozen supply, and why the next generation is increasingly stuck, unable to buy, and often unable to move. They discuss zoning reform, immigration, housing deterioration, and why, despite the bleak outlook, Kelman still believes there’s hope for long-term correction—if America can relearn how to build. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	11 Labs powers AI voices that don't sound like AI voices, like this one.
0:05.1	Eleven Labs voice agents are used to handle everything from customer support queries to appointment scheduling.
0:10.8	Get started for free at 11 Labs.io slash Atlantic.
0:15.0	Music Hello, and welcome back to the David From show.
0:29.6	I'm David From, a staff writer at the Atlantic.
0:32.7	My guest today will be Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, an online real estate brokerage service, and our topic
0:39.6	will be the state of the U.S. housing market. Before my dialogue with Glenn, I want to offer some
0:44.9	thoughts on quite a different subject, the impending 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
0:51.0	On August 15th, 1945, the Imperial Japanese government communicated its surrender to the United
0:57.5	States and the Allies in the Pacific War. That ceremony was formalized with a ceremony in Tokyo
1:03.3	Bay on September 2nd, bringing the war to its legal conclusion. The United States and every
1:09.7	belligerent in the war have observed many commemorations
1:13.3	of this immense event. As the commemorations have extended in time away from the events that they
1:20.5	commemorate, a kind of vainglorious note has tended to enter into these commemorations. never more so than in the message President Trump
1:29.4	issued on the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. I quote from his true social account.
1:35.5	Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other
1:40.2	country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II. I am hereby renaming May 8th
1:45.8	as Victory Day for World War II, and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I. We won both wars.
1:52.0	Nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything.
1:58.1	That's because we don't have leaders anymore that know how to do so. We are going
2:01.9	to start celebrating our victories again. Now, it's kind of news that the United States never celebrated
2:07.2	VE Day or VJ Day before Donald Trump came along. Of course, it did. But it is true that in the past,
	...

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