Housing experts weigh in on housing supply, homebuilding
August 23, 2021
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Today’s HousingWire Daily features a panel discussion on the nation’s home building trends. In this episode, Robert Dietz, the chief economist and senior vice president for economics and housing policy at the National Association of Homebuilders, Sean Faries, the CEO of Land Gorilla, and Douglas Norman, the vice president of construction and renovation operations at On Q Financial, discuss what factors have contributed to a national decline in homebuilding.
Here is a small preview of the conversation, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:
Alcynna Lloyd: For many years now, the housing industry has faced a lack of supply due to several factors, including an uptick in lumber prices and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the market is experiencing what many call an “inventory crisis.” Do you believe we are in a crisis and if so, how did we get here?
Robert Dietz: From the homebuilding perspective, we’ve had a number of years of under building. We’ve come to refer to the supply issues which have been in place for the market for at least half a decade as the five L’s: we lacked the labor, the lots, the lending, the builders and land developers. There’s issues with lumber and materials and legal and regulatory burdens.
All of that has resulted in years of under building and a housing deficit of at least a million homes, maybe as many as 5 million homes. And so what we’ve seen in the last 18 months is just economics 101: demand surge as a result of the COVID crisis. We have not enough inventory, and the result is really unsustainable growth in home prices.
HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported across HW Media. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsrooms that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Elissa Branch. If you have a pitch or an inquiry relating to podcasts, you can reach our team at [email protected].
