Re:Housing is at the root of many of the rich world’s proble...
by DubiousPusher on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @12:52PM
(#32498747)
Population growth has been lower but construction levels have been lower still. This is not speculation. It is fact.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/14/america-is-short-more-than-5...
The only parts which are speculative are why. There is consistently lower workforce participation in construction though, that is also a fact.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/construction-industry-after-r...
I'm glad the builders in your area have been able to work consistently. I would guess that they are likely riding a trend of a decreasing number of builders who are increasingly professionalized and technologized their operations. Regardless, that is an anecdote and the statistics paint a pretty clear picture.
A counterargument to this is that population growth has not been very high in the past few decades: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SUL3
You certainly have valid points, especially in San Francisco. Nevertheless, looking at the broader market, outside of California, the market appears to be working: builders find a way to build what will sell and maximize their profits. Last week, I drove around a planned community in a middle-America state. Developers started building houses around ~2010 and are still building out the area. These developers had no problem building thousands of homes that were selling well until very recently.