I read all the time about a housing shortage.

What I think is meant is that in the "in demand" areas where people are moving to there may be shortages. Overall the population is not replenishing itself ( low birth rate), some percentage of adults live with their parents still, and older folks are going into retirement communities. So the "shortage" is way overblown, yet prices go up everywhere because of the published reporting on the shortages. I mean, are houses being torn down by the millions and new ones not being built in time to replace those being demolished? I don't think so. And what about apartments complexes being built and condos being built everywhere. I see prices high and people not moving due to the interest rates they would pay on their next home, but a housing shortage? What say you?

It’s just another political talking point. If they don’t have a crisis, they’ll create a crisis. Real or perceived. Their favorite type of crisis is the one we dan’t really see and can’t really prove/disprove. That way the crisis lasts for years and they could solve it for us, if they could just win the election!!

Agreed.

Create a crisis, throw tax money at it using no common sense,

and then blame the results on someone else.

We real estate investors, property repair / managers

The housing crisis is real. When the economy tanked in 2008 house building came to halt. Those that knew how to build houses left the field. The skilled labor to build houses left the field. All the millenials stayed in their parents basement. Now these 30 year olds are looking for new digs.

The ones that are left are big players building developments. Pulte and DR Horton and those are not generally building in smaller towns.

This so called crisis, in my opinion, comes down to location and quality of the housing. Talking to many of the younger crowd, say 35 and under, they have been sold this idea that they should have a nice, new 2500+ square foot home on a big lot near the beach in a great town that has no problems. They are told that whatever they make, it should be enough to make the payments with plenty left over for exotic vacations every few months and plenty of spending cash.

The facts and reality are left out of the equation.

And so the younger people buy into this because of advertising and manipulation and when reality shows up, someone is at fault they don't get it. They stamp their feet like little children and DEMAND that they get what they are told they are entitled to. So what if the grandparents or parents had to work and claw their way up a rung at a time.

I agree with NE. This could be solved if the govt would get out of the way.

Many of the younger people have realized that they are being screwed and they are angry. Question is, will they wake up, face reality and deal with it by realizing they have to fix this themselves or will they continue to stamp their feet and demand someone else do it. There are plenty of young people who go and work hard every day. They just need to stop listening to advertising and propaganda and accept they need to move ahead a step at a time, not all at once. There are plenty of small starter homes and homes in smaller towns and fixers around. The advertisers have told them that they don't want these places. Quit listening to ads and propaganda.

Housing Shortages in Los Angeles City.

Private landlords couldn't evict or raise rents from 02/01/2020 thru 03/01/2024.

Leading me to spend over $100,000 to fix damaged by tenants who got free rent for this 4 year period. And now spending another $100,000 on legal fee's, starting to evict squatters. And I'm being taken to court an average of 5 days a month to defend myself from false restraining order. When the Tenant and Free Legal Aid attorney's are found to have lied, filed false police reports and cost me more money/losses, they are praised for thinking up ways to keeping a roof over squatters heads and not cost the City additional housing costs.

The a-hole mayor has over 500 vacant apartment that she isn't filling with, homeless vets, families or the sink, why? Because she will only place the homeless in rentals (the city owns) that the State of California is dumb enough to provide Section 8 money to cover rents, that the stupid Federal Government will cover with raised taxes.

It cost me around $80,000 to purchase a run down unit and then $20,000 to re-hab it. So that's a total of $100,000 K per unit or $1M per 10 unit building. But the City will buy a good old building, relocate the tenants then knock it down for around $2,000,000. Then build a new 10 unit building for $5,000,000. Costing around $7,500,000 for a 10 unit property, or $750,000 per unit. Placing a homeless family in those units, needing $4,500 rent per month or $54,000 a year-of Section 8.

[[[[[[.... . Overall the population is not replenishing itself .....]]]]]

The population is "replenishing itself" to the tune of a quarter million people every month, and those the just the ones who are getting counted. Perhaps 3-4 times that many never get caught or counted.

That's a broad statement used when in fact it is or is not a local problem. I even challenge the idea that it was caused from the 2008 meltdown. If you look at housing starts over the years, you will see a dip in the years around 2008 and a surge in the 2013 through 2019 years. It does sell well on the political front though.

I admin a FB housing group, and while I do see a shortage of available homes here, it's the frickn en' BEACH and every day every month every year we get young kids coming to live their dream, retirees coming to live out THEIR dream, second home folks wanting reasonable affordable beach homes (still on the East Coast, still within driving distance of "up north.)

"Affordable Housing Shortage"

GKARL, so sorry to hear you are still wading thru the trash.

Housing availability had been exasperated by the the oversupply of short term aka air bnb rentals. Everyone rushed in to buy properties, gussy them up and get on that gravy train. Other property buyers have been foreign investors buying pied a tier properties and trophy homes.

I could see where someone who made mistakes back in 2008 who elected to follow up those mistakes with bad decisions during Covid - could have a hard time finding a quality home.

In my area, if you get in the car and drive around, there are for rent signs everywhere. Check the complexes and the listing sites and there are lots and lots of units for rent.

And yet so many in this area claim they can't find anything. Been looking for six months. Paid bazillions in application fees only to be denied. Hmmmm... and yet those same folks feel their pet/s are their "family" and they'll never move without them. They have past evictions/short employment history/terrible credit/criminal records but they have money and will always pay the rent on time. I always wonder how long it will take for society as a whole to realize actions have consequences, some long term. I'm not judging anyone but again, consequences and personal responsibility. If your family (who usually seem to be unable to assist) can't/won't help you, why would a stranger?

As for rentals, I agree that it’s a shortage of qualified tenants rather than a shortage of units. The system requires a floor in quality, amenities, legal protection, etc., and too many people can’t meet that floor. If the bar on housing was lowered, however, in a thoughtful manner, I think the private sector would jump in and fill that need. I’m thinking along the lines of rooming houses, converted motels, etc. But our government and society fights to raise the bar, and the unintended consequence is that the bottom rung of society is effectively priced out. Not that I’m advocating for this, but as an extreme example, if we could all call the sheriff and have someone tossed on the spot, we’d all be much more willing to take a chance on a marginal applicant.

The number of people that ask me if I have any openings in the county is unreal. Both from applicants and existing tenants.