Through the Roof
Housing, Capitalism, and the State in America and Germany

Unveils divergent American and German housing policies over the past century and their major impact on each country's capitalist model.

Alexander Reisenbichler (Author)

9781009596602, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 September 2025

324 pages
23.4 x 16 x 2.2 cm, 0.6 kg

'The U.S. created a housing crisis by turning housing into an asset class. Germany did not make that mistake and yet ended up with a similar crisis. Reisenbichler deftly explains both cases by reference to each country's underlying growth regime. A masterful political economy account that shows us how growth, housing, and inequality are all interlinked.' Mark Blyth, William R. Rhodes '57 Professor of International Economics, Brown University

Housing is the defining issue of our time, driving a persistent affordability crisis, financial instability, and economic inequality. Through the Roof examines the crucial role of the state in shaping the housing markets of two economic powerhouses-the United States and Germany. The book starts with a puzzle: laissez-faire America has vigorously supported homeownership markets with generous government programs, while social democratic Germany has slashed policy support for both homeownership and rental markets. The book explains why both nations have adopted such radically different and unexpected housing policy approaches. Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews with policymakers, it argues that contrasting forms of capitalism-demand-led in the United States and export-oriented in Germany-resulted in divergent housing policies. In both countries, these policies have subsequently transformed capitalism itself.

1. Introduction
2. Discovering Housing-Based Growth in America
3. Germany's Postwar Housing and Export Miracles
4. Financializing the American Economy and Housing Market
5. Path Shifting of German Housing Programs
6. The Double Down: Nationalizing American Housing Finance
7. The Double Back: Retrenching German Housing Programs
8. Paradoxes of American and German Housing Policy.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB]