Housing Affordability Slow to Improve

U.S. home prices are projected to rise by 2.8 percent by the end of 2024, according to CoreLogic, signaling that the housing crisis will likely continue throughout the year.

As Casey Quinlan explains in Florida Phoenix, “Much of the current predicament renters and homebuyers face is linked to high housing demand, low housing inventory and the Fed’s cycle of hiking interest rates.”

In other words, renters and homebuyers shouldn’t expect relief anytime soon. “A lack of housing stock, both in for sale and overall inventory, is a key long-run problem for housing affordability, said Robert Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. A lack of accessible rental inventory that provides both single family and multi-family rental housing is a problem, he said.”

A shortage of workers is also slowing down housing production. “A 2023 Home Builders Institute report found that construction would need to add hundreds of thousands of workers to meet residential construction demand.”