“USA250: The Story of the World’s Greatest Economy” is a yearlong WSJ series examining America’s first 250 years. Read more about it from Editor in Chief Emma Tucker.
It has taken many years to come to a consensus, but today few disagree: America simply doesn’t have enough housing.
Too few new homes is one of the reasons home prices have outpaced incomes and general inflation. There are solutions—but they all could produce both winners and losers.
A wave of new-home construction, for instance, that lowered prices and rents would be a boon to millions of Americans who have struggled with high housing costs. But it also could mean lower returns to real-estate investors, and lower home values for millions of existing homeowners.
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