IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Lack of housing construction isn’t only a problem in Southern California.
Despite significant job growth during the past several years, new home construction is currently below where it needs to be in most U.S. metropolitan areas, which is causing persistent housing shortages and unhealthy price growth, according to the National Association of Realtors in Chicago.
The non-profit organization recently measured the amount of housing construction relative to the number of newly employed workers in 146 metropolitan areas.
It found that homebuilding has failed to keep up with job growth in roughly two-thirds of those markets during the past three years, according to data the association released last week.
“Lagging new home construction, especially single-family, has kept available inventory far below balanced levels,” said Lawrene Yun, the association’s chief economist, in a statement. “Even as the labor market began to strengthen, homebuilding failed to keep up and is now contributing to the stronger price appreciation and eroding affordability currently seen throughout the U.S.”
Even with the strong job growth experienced this year, there have been only slight gains in single-family housing starts, indicating that sustained price growth will continue to keep houses less affordable, the association found.
