Homebuilding Isn’t Keeping Up With Growth, Development Group Says

By Laura Kusisto | Source: Realtor.com

America’s housing shortage is more wide-ranging than cloistered coastal markets, stretching from pricey locales such as California and Massachusetts to more surprising places, such as Arizona and Utah.

Some 22 states and the District of Columbia have built too little housing to keep up with economic growth in the 15 years since 2000, resulting in a total shortage of 7.3 million units, according to research to be released Monday by an advocacy group for loosening building regulations.

California bears half of the blame for the shortage: The state built 3.4 million too few units to keep up with job, population and income growth.

The research was commissioned by Up for Growth National Coalition, a newly formed group that includes real-estate developers and owners such as Holland Property Group in Vancouver, Wash., and Essex Property Trust Inc. in California, along with affordable-housing builder BRIDGE Housing. It also includes local California chambers of commerce and TechNet, a network of technology-company executives.

The data adds details to a housing-shortage picture painted by government data, industry results and economists. Home construction per household remains near the lowest level in 60 years of record-keeping, according to Jordan Rappaport, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

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