A new White House report estimates the U.S. is short 10 million homes—a gap driven largely by the collapse in homebuilding after 2008.
In other words, it’s not just a snapshot of today’s shortage—it’s the result of more than a decade of underbuilding, and it answers the question:
How many homes would exist if we had kept building at historical levels after 2008?
That’s a very different question from How many homes are we short today? It includes:
- Homes never built after the financial crisis
- Slower population-adjusted construction
- Missed “normal growth” trajectory
It’s more like a lost supply gap, not just today’s shortage.
Whether it’s 3 million or 10 million, the signal is the same: we’ve been underbuilding for years—and the system still isn’t set up to fix it.
So, what’s the proposed fix? Cut regulatory costs—what the report calls a “bureaucrat tax” that can add more than $100,000 to the price of a new home—and unlock more construction.
On paper, it makes sense, but the signal runs deeper. We don’t just have a housing shortage. We have a system that makes it difficult to build at scale—rising costs, regulatory friction, and tighter financing have all compounded over time.
However, even if you remove some of the friction, projects still need to get financed, executed, and delivered because in this market, supply isn’t constrained by demand. It’s constrained by what actually makes it to completion.
If policymakers are serious about increasing housing supply, this is the right conversation.
Read the full article here: The US is short 10 million houses. A new White House report lays out a blueprint to fix that.
