Some housing experts are wary of new home construction as a means of increasing homeownership among low-income households, because of the high cost. Edgar Olsen, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Virginia, said subsidizing new houses is less efficient than having renters buy existing homes. “Subsidizing the construction of new houses and selling them at below-market prices is a highly cost-ineffective approach to increasing the homeownership rate,’' Olsen wrote in an email. It “concentrates huge subsidies on the fortunate few who are offered units while offering n...