Despite Recent Gains in Construction Activity, the US Housing Shortage Persists
Coastal markets, such as San Francisco and Seattle, are feeling the shortage the most due to geographical costraints and strict zoning regulations
June 18, 2024
Image: volgariver / stock.adobe.com
More homes are being developed, but a housing shortage remains an issue in many markets.
In 2022, 1.4 million homes were constructed across the U.S.—the most homes built annually since 2007. Despite this, the U.S. housing shortage has only gotten worse over the last few years. According to research from housing market platform Zillow, the U.S. was short 4.5 million homes in 2022, up from 4.3 million the prior year. This is likely due to an increase in households as well as minimal construction activity in the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Building more homes is of course an obvious step toward chipping away at this persistent shortage. But while the pace of construction has shown signs of life of late, it will still need to accelerate significantly in order to have any hope at making a meaningful change in this regard. Roughly 1.45 million homes were completed in 2023, marking the best calendar year for construction since the Great Recession. However, a large pre-existing deficit suggests that even if the nation were to see no population growth, that increase is still far below what would have been needed to close the deficit.
