Adequate and Affordable Housing for 2040 Metropolitan Monterrey: Applying Participatory Foresight

This report examines the growing challenge of providing adequate and affordable housing in Metropolitan Monterrey, a region whose economic dynamism and sustained demographic growth have intensified long-standing pressures on housing supply. The complexity of this issue, shaped by multiple actors, institutions, interests and interdependent systems, characterizes it as a “wicked problem” for public policy—one with unclear boundaries, unpredictable outcomes, and no definitive solutions. To explore potential pathways for long-term action, the study summarizes the results of a two-day participatory foresight workshop designed to initiate a regional, multi-stakeholder deliberative process. The objective was to collectively envision possible futures for housing in 2040 and to identify strategic directions for moving toward those futures. Although focused on Metropolitan Monterrey, the findings illustrate challenges that are emblematic of urban housing dilemmas across Mexico and other global contexts confronting increasingly complex policy problems.