The Merrymakers' Caravan -- representatives of a religious community who travel across the country in decorative buses (see the photos below) -- encamped Saturday (Aug. 12, 2006) at the Ithaca Commons in downtown Ithaca NY. The nomadic Merrymakers are no strangers to the home of Cornell University; they visit the city annually, playing music, performing dances and talking with passers-by about their faith and their hopes for our nation. The Merrymakers smile, joke, and invite an exchange of ideas for a day or two, and then they're on the road again to another town.

Not all are wanderers, surely, and not all are young, either. Some members of the Merrymakers' are in their 40s and 50s. Most who join choose a communal lifestyle as a way to return to their spiritual, philosophical and social roots. They're to be commended for pursuing those ideals.

For the vast majority of Americans, however, being rooted means having a home to call one's own. Sadly, finding a home is becoming increasingly difficult for first-time buyers. The big problem: affordability.

"A shortage of affordable rental and for-sale units, rising land costs, aging and deteriorating housing stock, energy costs, and predatory lending" are among the problems that plague middle- and lower- income families in meeting their housing needs, according to the "2006 Statewide Housing Study" just released (July 31, 2006) by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. The agency is the state's leading provider of capital for affordable homes and apartments.

The problems are not limited to Pennsylvania, either; they exist nationwide. And they are likely to get worse.

Although the economy has generated hundreds of thousands of jobs in recent years, far too many are at wages too low to make buying a home possible. Coupled with land-use restrictions that have driven housing costs skyward, "today's widespread affordability problems should intensify," says the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

"At the local level, land-use regulations often make it difficult for builders to develop affordable housing. Large minimum-lot sizes, restrictions on land available for residential development, impact fees that place the marginal cost of infrastructure and public services on new-home buyers, and approval processes that add risk and delays, all play a hand in rising house prices," the Harvard center warns in its June 2006 "State of the Nation's Housing" report.

Even builders worry about affordability lately. The July 2006 monthly survey by the National Association of Home Builders shows its members are less confident about the source of future business, in part because rising costs and higher home prices are limiting their markets.

Real estate brokers and salespeople are caught in the middle of the affordability tug-of-war. On one hand, they relish the short-term financial benefits a hot housing market can provide. But they're not foolish: they know that having more newcomers in starter homes means having more clients for move-up homes over time. That's where the bigger, more consistent business will be.

There's a great deal both the public and private sectors can do to make housing more affordable for all. It won't happen overnight, and it won't be easily accomplished, but it must be undertaken. Because without such efforts, the nomadic Merrymakers might find themselves with more company than they ever expected.