According to new research from Realtor.com, the U.S. is short 5.24 million homes, an increase of 1.4 million from the 2019 gap of 3.84 million.
The research cited data from the U.S. Census, which revealed that 12.3 million American households have been formed from January 2012 to June 2021, but only 7 million new single-family houses were built during that same time.
“The pandemic has certainly exacerbated the U.S. housing shortage, but data shows household formations outpaced new construction long before Covid. Put simply, new construction supply hasn’t been meeting demand over the last five years,” stated Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale. “Millennials, many of whom are now in their 30s and even 40s, have debunked the industry’s ‘renter generation’ expectations.”