I’m new to this sub. Why is there a housing shortage when the birth rate has been declining considerably? The national news just said we need 5 million more homes to satisfy the current need. I’m genuinely curious. Thanks!
In: Economics
I don’t think there is a housing shortage. There are pleanty of housing, but they are in places where people don’t want to live, and there are areas where houses are too expensive for the people who is trying to live there.
People being homeless is not a matter of housing shortage, but rather that the people are not able to pay for the housing that is available. There can be 10 one million dollar houses in a street that are up for sale, but that doesn’t help any of the people on minimum wage. The profits that a constrction company can make from luxury housing is so much higher than building low income housing, so the houses we have tend to be build for the people with money.
Going out of the very popular high cost areas, there are pleanty of housing that is up for grabs for very reasonable prices. However there are not a lot of jobs there, so the people who need a home don’t want to move there.
So there is not really a shortage, but they there in the wrong places for the people who needs a home.
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