#Housing Market #Realtor.com #Home Shortage

U.S. Housing Market Faces Severe Home Shortage

The housing situation in the United States is increasingly dire, as a comprehensive analysis from Realtor.com® reveals that the country is grappling with a staggering shortage of nearly 4 million homes. This shortfall, the result of over a decade of underbuilding, has significant implications for affordability and access to homeownership for millions of Americans. With home prices and rents soaring, the dream of owning a home is slipping further from reach.

As part of efforts to address this critical issue, Realtor.com® has launched the Let America Build campaign, aiming to promote solutions that bolster housing supply. This initiative seeks to rally support from lawmakers to rethink and reform the policies that have hindered new construction across the nation.

A Closer Look at the Numbers

The report from Realtor.com® indicates that while there have been improvements in housing construction—home completions hit 1.6 million in 2024, the highest in nearly twenty years—this growth is still inadequate to close the substantial gap. In fact, even with these increases, at the current pace, it would take approximately 7.5 years to fill the housing void entirely. Breaking this down regionally reveals stark disparities: the South might close its gap in just three years, while the Midwest is projected to take a staggering 41 years.

Furthermore, the analysis points out that young adults, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, are forming fewer households due to economic pressures, resulting in an estimated **1.63 million