World Property Journal
According to Zillow, one of the defining characteristics of the U.S. housing market in 2018 is the lack of available inventory, and much of this scarcity can be traced back to the lack of building following the bubble’s burst.
Between 1985 and 2000, there were 3.9 permits issued for single-family homes per 1,000 residents. Since 2008, that mark stands at just 1.9 permits per 1,000 people. If that historic rate had continued over the past decade, there would be about 6.3 million more single-family homes in the housing stock. It would take about five years of building at the current pace of 1.3 million homes per year just to add those “missing” homes.
Inventory has been falling on an annual basis for the past 41 months, although its decline has slowed in recent months. With such limited inventory, competition for available homes has been particularly fierce in recent months in the nation’s hottest housing markets, driving up prices and making it more difficult for new buyers to enter the market. The median home value is higher than its pre-recession peak in more than half of the nation’s largest markets.
