Housing and Financial Services: Congressman Miller believes that we must address America's housing availability and affordability crisis by removing hurdles and needless regulations that keep homeownership out of reach for too many Americans.

"Around the country, there's an affordability crisis among low-income people," said Jerry McKim, the author of the Iowa report.

"I don't think you can really solve New York City's affordability crisis only with new production and money and land," Mr. Lander said.

She said the city was facing the "worst affordability crisis in the modern era," in part because of "three decades of state control."

Wilma DiFiore, manager of the Weichert office in Larchmont, said she believed the Sound Shore area was suffering from an affordability crisis.

While there is a housing crisis in Brooklyn, he said, there is also an affordability crisis that the city should address.

"People read newspapers and magazines every day and when they see constant articles about an affordability crisis every day, they say things like that," he said angrily.

"You can't expect the whole affordability crisis to be taken on by builders; you need an incentive."

The National Association of Realtors reports that the affordability crisis among would-be first-time homebuyers across the nation is the worst it has been in more than a decade.

There is no affordability crisis in the leisure home market as there is in primary residences.