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Amidst the real estate market’s roller coaster ride of the past two-plus years, one of the pillars of a successful real estate transaction—the home inspection—fell by the wayside as buyers maneuvered around stiff competition to secure a home.

One of the most important parts of a healthy housing market is having healthy homes. Maintenance costs—which average somewhere between 0.5% and 1% of the home’s value per year—are vital investments homeowners need to make not just for themselves, but for the next owner, their neighbors and the community.

It is the most important word in real estate today, and no, it’s not “location.”

Increasingly, real estate insiders and government policymakers are recognizing that if no one can afford housing, we are all in a lot of trouble. “Affordability” has become a crisis sparked by restrictive zoning, underbuilding, stagnating wages and spiraling home prices, with more and more government officials and housing advocates clamoring for solutions that will allow low- and middle-income families to get into homeownership.

Though U.S.