Amherst CEO Proposes Credit Reform to Restore Housing Affordability

3 hours ago7 min read

The American dream of homeownership is facing its most severe affordability crisis in generations, a reality that Sean Dobson, CEO of the institutional landlord Amherst Group, argues was inadvertently engineered by post-financial crisis policy. Speaking ahead of his appearance at ResiDay 2025, Dobson laid out a provocative case that the very regulations designed to prevent another housing collapse have systematically locked out an entire class of potential homebuyers, creating a vacuum that firms like his have filled.While institutional landlords still own less than 1% of the total U. S.single-family housing stock, their rise from non-existence two decades ago to a formidable market force is a direct consequence of a tightened credit box. Dobson points to a stark data point: in the first quarter of 1999, the bottom 10th percentile of mortgage borrowers had a credit score of 597; by the third quarter of 2025, that threshold had skyrocketed to 660.This shift, he explains, didn't just protect the system from risk—it fundamentally reshaped it, boxing out millions of Americans with less-than-perfect credit and creating a durable, long-term tenant base for the single-family rental asset class. Dobson's proposed solution is as simple as it is politically fraught: carefully reintroduce responsible subprime lending.He isn't advocating for a return to the reckless, no-documentation loans of the mid-2000s, but rather for a recalibration that allows borrowers with credit scores in the low 600s back into the market. This, he believes, would not trigger an immediate affordability miracle but would instead create a steady demand signal for homebuilders to construct more entry-level and manufactured homes, increasing supply and easing price pressures over the next decade.He recounts with a hint of frustration that when he advises government officials on this very playbook, their response is often to 'fold up their notebooks and head on,' a reaction he attributes to the deep-seated stigma surrounding the term 'subprime. ' In the absence of such reform, Dobson sees a market grinding sideways, constrained by a brutal affordability math that pits stagnant wages against high prices and mortgage rates.He predicts a 'decade of difficulties' for aspiring homeowners, a period that will naturally fuel demand for single-family rentals as the only viable path for families to access desirable neighborhoods and school districts. This dynamic is already playing out regionally, with markets like Austin, Jacksonville, and parts of Florida—where building is easier—seeing price corrections as new supply finally hits the market, a stark contrast to the supply-constrained stalemate in the Northeast and Midwest.As for the future of institutional investment, Dobson believes the next wave won't come from the private equity players who pioneered the space, like Blackstone's Invitation Homes, but from core investors like state pension funds finally recognizing the asset class's potential for stable, inflation-beating returns. The path to restoring housing affordability, in Dobson's view, is not about blaming institutional landlords for their presence, but about fixing the broken credit machinery that invited them in the first place.

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#housing affordability

#institutional landlords

#single-family rentals

#mortgage credit

#homebuilding

#Amherst

#Sean Dobson