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"stopped building new homes" is clearly an exaggeration, but the spirit of the comment is spot on. Housing starts did collapse around '08, and only returned to

"stopped building new homes" is clearly an exaggeration, but the spirit of the comment is spot on. Housing starts did collapse around '08, and only returned to the historical average in ~2021. Even so, we're still producing fewer units than we were producing in the 70's--when the population was ~60% of what it is now! How can there be any doubt that this production glut has played a huge role in the rise of housing prices? https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST

JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> we're still producing fewer units than we were producing in the 70's--when the population was ~60% of what it is now The population was growing around 1.1% a year in the 70s; it was 0.75% the last decade and is currently between 0.1% and 0.25% [1]. [1] https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-indicators/growth_by_decade/population/tools/ https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-in...
- bobthepanda 5y ago
  To compare to housing starts, you need to compare to absolute numbers. You also need to consider the fact that household sizes are trending downwards pretty consistently, so there needs to be more houses for the same number of people.
  - deleted 5y ago
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