Here’s an interesting piece on NPR a few days ago about the housing shortage and its causes.  A lot is attributed to cost of materials, and loss of workforce during the great recession and no one coming back in to refill those jobs.  It also has an interesting perspective on local land use regulation’s role, and how it’s skewing things:

Overly restrictive zoning is a big problem nationally, says Robert Dietz, the chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders. “In certain neighborhoods you simply cannot build townhouses.”

“You have to build single family units on lots that are bigger than the market wants,” Dietz says. “This is not a free market choice. It’s a government-imposed rule.”

He says that in many parts of the country, the classic NIMBY (not in my back yard) opposition stops higher-density units from being built. Existing homeowners who don’t want more traffic and more homes in their neighborhood keep what he says are outdated, exclusionary zoning rules in place.

So to make a profit, builders like Claus are left doing renovations or tear downs — buying an older home, knocking it down, and building a bigger, more expensive new one.

“We are seeing a lot of knockdowns,” Claus says. “But it doesn’t add to the housing stock. You’re replacing something, you’re not adding to it, so the net effect isn’t the best.”

Changes in zoning can make a big difference. Some states and towns have been changing the rules to allow in-law rental apartments to be built onto existing houses. These are called accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.

“Twenty percent of remodelers indicate in the last year they’ve undertaken an ADU project, and the typical one can cost anywhere between $100,000 and $200,000,” Dietz says.

That’s good for the supply of rental housing, which is also very tight. But Dietz says we also need a lot more homes for people to buy.

“That could be a townhouse,” he says. “It could be a single family detached home on a small lot that’s roughly 1,800 to 2,100 square feet, that’s appropriate for effectively a newly married couple that’s moving out of their first apartment and is getting into their their first rung of homeownership.”

Right now, Claus says that because of the restrictive zoning rules, he doesn’t have any new home projects lined up that will put a house like that in a place there wasn’t a home already.

Worth the read to get another perspective.