Biden Administration Targets Housing Supply Shortage

The Biden administration took steps on Monday to address the shortage of US entry-level housing, including expanding federal funding for affordable housing and subsidizing places to encourage construction.

Each regulatory circulate is technical and modest, even though the management hopes they'll together dent the envisioned scarcity of tens of thousands and thousands of houses over the approaching years.

According to the fact sheet distributed by the White House, the change will be at the local level by prioritizing jurisdictions that encourage "local highway density and revitalization" to fund last year's infrastructure law.

Two government agencies, the Federal Housing Agency and the Federal Housing Finance Agency will study test pilots to encourage small-scale housing lending and increase the housing supply.

Over the past two years, the home shortage has been exacerbated by a surge in homebuying demand driven by record mortgage rates and the Covid-19 pandemic, which has fueled a desire by city dwellers to escape cramped housing and to have more spacious houses in the suburbs. 

According to NAR, at the end of March, a two-month supply of existing homes was on the market at current sales rates, near a record low. Economists say a four-to-six-month supply is more balanced.