Much of the new construction is in the higher end of the market, because that’s where builders can make back their money, Airgood-Obrycki said. In most of the country, a household earning the area’s median income is not even close to affording a typical home. “If you are a homeowner, you have access to incredible amounts of equity right now,” said Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a senior research associate at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.īut this also means a huge number of potential home buyers are locked out of the market. There was a shortage of about 2.3m homes by the end of 2022, an increase of about 500,000 since 2012, according to a analysis. But today rates are high – nearly 6.5%, up from less than 3% a few years ago – and many sellers would rather stay put than risk entering the market for a new home themselves, meaning inventory has cratered.Įxisting homes also aren’t going on the market because baby boomers – born between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s – are ageing in place rather than moving into senior living arrangements.ĭespite all this demand, new home construction hasn’t kept up. Mortgage interest rates hit a record low during the pandemic, supercharging sales. In 2010, only about 10% of homes were bought by investors now it’s approximately 20%, according to Redfin data. Investors are buying an increasing number of properties, adding to the competition. Millennials – born in the 1980s through the mid-1990s – are driving up demand because they’re now entering the housing market, after years of being delayed in buying their first homes.

There are several causes of this, according to housing experts. The simple explanation for why housing prices are so high is that more people want to buy homes, but there aren’t enough on the market.

Are we in a housing bubble 2021