Nearly half of all Americans say the lack of available housing in their community is a major problem, according to a new survey, while an overwhelming 70% of younger adults believe that it is more difficult for them to buy a home today than it was for their parents a generation ago.
A report accompanying the survey, published by the Pew Research Center, additionally points to two major factors leading to the housing crunch: a slowdown in the building of new homes, and incomes that have failed to keep pace with current home price increases.
“A surge in home buying spurred by record low mortgage interest rates during the Covid-19 pandemic has further strained the availability of homes,” writes analyst Katherine Schaeffer in the document Key Facts About Housing Affordability in the U.S.
The available inventory of active housing listings has dramatically dropped from around 1.5 million in October of 2016 to just under 409,000 as of this January. That 409,000 figure represents a 60% decrease in listings since early 2020.
At the same time, the country’s median home sale price has jumped from just over $300,000 to around $408,000.
One additional factor impacting housing availability is that there are today an increasing number of homes off the market, owing to the simple fact that people are living in them and happy: some 2.1 million homes more homes were sold in 2021 over the year before.
A separate report recently issued by the Census Bureau has shown that the 1950s was the first decade of significant home ownership growth, with new suburbs being laid out across the country.
But in fact, only 55% of all Americans owned a home during the Eisenhower era, a figure that now stands at around 65.5% today.
Census figures also show the homeownership rate in Arizona at 64.5% as of last year, compared with Colorado at 63.6%, and New Mexico at 70.8%. Those figures generally aligned with a national average homeownership rate of 65.6%.
By Garry Boulard
