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By Jeannine Clark
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Ask why a starter home now costs more than their parents’ first house, and most people will point to lumber prices, labor shortages, mortgage rates above 6 percent, or rising construction costs.
Those factors matter. But none of them fully explain why builders cannot build enough homes to meet demand.
After years in this industry, I have become convinced that America’s affordability crisis is, at its core, also a supply crisis.
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Too many people are competing for too few homes, and the homes that do exist are becoming more expensive. We can debate the roles of construction costs, migration, household formation, and mortgage rates, but the imbalance remains.
This summer, U.S. home prices continued rising, with the Federal Housing Finance Agency reporting a 2.2 percent year-over-year increase in May amid a shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renters.
So I keep coming back to one question: What is stopping us from building?
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Part of the answer sits in zoning offices and planning departments across the country. Land that could support a duplex, townhouse, or small multifamily building can remain trapped inside rules designed around a single-family ideal.
Changing that designation can require surveys, environmental work, architectural plans, applications, and fees before a builder even knows whether a project will be approved.
I have seen those costs accumulate quickly. A project can absorb thousands of dollars in preliminary work while still carrying the risk of rejection. Reasonable oversight has too often become a maze that consumes time, capital, and expertise.
The newly enacted 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act recognizes much of this problem, with measures aimed at increasing housing supply, modernizing programs, streamlining reviews, and encouraging development.
I welcome that direction. But legislation can open the door; implementation determines whether anyone gets through it.
The Importance of Communication
Housing agencies and local governments need enough trained people to process applications and keep projects moving. A policy can promise a faster process on paper, while an understaffed office leaves builders and homeowners waiting months.
Fraud prevention matters, but if legitimate applicants must navigate an obstacle course because agencies lack the staffing or technology to identify fraud efficiently, we have created another problem while trying to solve one. Complexity is not a security system.
Governments also need to communicate better. When Americans hear "multifamily development," they may picture congestion, declining property values, or unfamiliar neighbors.
Yet ask whether they want safe, attractive communities with housing for families, workers, young adults, and older residents, and the answer is usually yes.
That gap is the result of a communications failure. Communities need to see the architecture, understand who the housing serves, and know how a project will affect the neighborhood.
Good design can turn an abstract policy debate into something people can actually envision.
A Concern for Everyone
The stakes reach far beyond people currently searching for a home. Housing determines where people can work, whether families can remain near one another, and whether older adults can age safely.
Everyone needs somewhere to live, which makes housing supply a concern for everyone.
We also need to question the assumption that a successful American life must culminate in the biggest house we can afford. A 5,000-square-foot home is one version of success; it should not define it.
A townhouse can support a young family. An accessory dwelling unit can keep an aging parent close. A smaller apartment can give a renter or first-time buyer a foothold in a community where a detached home is impossible.
The choice is becoming stark. Without enough homes, families are pushed farther from work, older adults remain in homes they can no longer safely maintain, and communities become places only the wealthiest can afford.
Build enough of the right homes, and young families can put down roots, older adults can age in place, and workers can remain near the communities that need them. One future constricts opportunity; the other expands it.
Demographic Pressure
The demographic pressure is building. According to the Census Bureau, every baby boomer will be 65 or over by 2030. A Statista study projects that people 65 and older could account for 22.8 percent of the U.S. population by 2050.
My own mother is 83 and still works because her finances require it. How many people will reach retirement with homes that are too large, expensive, or difficult to maintain, while the smaller homes they need simply do not exist?
That is the supply problem again. America needs duplexes, townhomes, apartments, accessory dwelling units, manufactured homes, multigenerational housing, and thoughtfully designed single-family communities.
We have spent years asking how Americans can afford the homes already on the market. We should be asking how America can build enough homes to give people choices in the first place.
Federal and local leaders need to act accordingly. Set measurable housing-supply targets, streamline zoning and permitting, adequately staff approval offices, modernize processing systems, and make it easier to build the housing communities actually need.
The crisis is already here. Leaders should stop measuring the obstacles and start measuring the homes they are willing to build.
Jeannine Clark is the founder and principal of Access Design + Build, a Twin Cities remodeling company specializing in accessible, adaptive, and universal design.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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