The Root Cause of the U.S. Housing Crisis: A Severe Shortage of Homes
What’s behind the U.S. housing crisis? It boils down to one central issue: not enough building, especially since 2008. The housing industry took a massive hit after the global financial crisis, with new housing starts dropping nearly 50% year-over-year in 2009. Since then, building rates have remained far below what’s needed to keep up with demand.
The Numbers Tell the Story
For over two decades, the U.S. construction industry has lagged in building enough homes to meet both current and future needs. Today, analysts estimate the U.S. is short by around 3-3.5 million homes. As basic economics predicts, this shortage has driven housing costs up, putting homeownership out of reach for many and increasing rent costs across the country.
Heading into the 2024 Elections
With the housing crisis top-of-mind for many Americans, it’s also one of the major issues in the upcoming presidential election. The solution is clear: we need to build millions of homes to meet demand. But achieving this will require a massive scaling up of construction efforts, including innovative approaches.
Why Modular and Prefabricated Construction is Part of the Solution
At Hive Modular, we believe that modular and prefabricated construction can play a vital role in solving this crisis. Building at scale and with efficiency could help address the shortage faster, delivering quality homes in less time and potentially at a lower cost. As we move forward, modular building could be the key to providing housing for future generations—and to stabilizing the U.S. economy.