Housing Shortage

• Paper on the shortage of housing in the USA - [1]
• 2.5 millions houses short - [2]
• supply is 1.9M homes in 2020 - [3]
• USA number of households growth is 1M, and 350k demolitions - [4]. Ie, would need 1.35M new homes built per year.
• 400k houses short - [5]
• It now would take about 4 months to sell all 1.8M available homes - [6]
• About 3 months supply. Up to a Few years ago, it was 6 months. [7]
• 7M affordable homes missing uin 2018 - [8]. Recent trend of Upzoning exists - [9]. One study concluded The study concluded that over a five-year timespan, upzoning didn’t increase housing supply, but it did increase land values.
• Concept of cottage zoning - [10]
• 'The missing middle' - [11]
• Metropolitan Land Trusts - and Equitable Transit-Oriented Developments - eTODs - [12]. People already live, esp poorer people, far away from labor centers. So creating more rural housing does not address the housing issue. Suburbs are modern-day segregation - [urban growth following World War II was characterized by the rapid suburbanization of jobs and infrastructure as middle-class white families fled central cities in search of less congestion, better services and amenities, racial homogeneity, and single-family homes]

Analysis

There is a shortage of housing. When supply is short, prices rise. Free markets tend to keep supply up with demand. Supply is not keeping up in the area of housing. Zoning is quoted as a key limiting factor in the supply of housing.

Extrapolated to the greater picture, it may be stated that legal barriers are - likely the main - block to an adequate supply of housing.