City-Loving Millennials Contribute To The Housing Shortage

In recent years, young adults have eschewed the suburbs to instead live in the city, where they can be closer to jobs, entertainment, and transit.

According to Realtor.com, new analysis from BuildZoom says that builders have focused more on urban cores and less on constructing starter homes in cheaper suburbs, which has helped fuel the housing shortage.

Also, expensive land costs in central cities have pushed builders to construct high-end homes and ignore affordable homes for younger buyers who are just starting out.

While new home sales within 5 miles of the centers of 10 of the country’s priciest and most densely populated metropolitan areas have surpassed levels from 2000, they remain more than 50% below where they were in 2000 when you go more than 10 miles out. The year 2000 is often used as a benchmark for a normal market, before the boom and bust of the mid-2000s.

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