A recent Realtor.com housing market update noted that there is a deficit of around 5.8 million new homes needed to meet demand.

That’s a lot of new houses!

A builder rep I met with last month told me that the timeline from contract to keys is now 14 months!!

During the heady days of the housing boom (2000-2007) a builder could crank out a house in 4 months.

But builders were also partially blamed for over-building during the boom, rightly or wrongly. Many lost a lot during the housing bust and Great Recession from 2008-2011.

My hunch is that they have still not fully recovered and are being very cautious with new neighborhoods now.

Another report recently showed that new home starts were at a 50 year LOW in this last decade, 2011-2020. The rate of new construction was far, far below the previous four decades.

One solution to the severe housing shortage and skyrocketing prices would some incentives for builders to increase the rate of new home construction.

The current crazy growth in housing prices really has no end in sight.

If you plan on waiting for prices to come down or another crash to occur, you might be waiting a long, long time.

David Baker, MBA, CRS, GRI, SFR, e-PRO

Broker/Owner, Baker Realty Group