US president Joe Biden wants to close a 15-year housing shortage in just five years.
The US housing affordability crisis has only gotten worse with pandemic-era supply chain issues, despite generous welfare and federal housing assistance. As fewer homes are on the market and more people own homes, around 50% of Americans told Pew Research that housing affordability was a major problem where they lived, up 10 percentage points from an early 2018 survey.
New construction on private-owned housing is the highest it’s been since 2006, but it may also decline in the next year with rising mortgage interest rates. When housing demand dries up, the second best option for incentivizing more building is to deregulate construction.
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