The Huffington Post reports Alex Charfen, CEO of the Charfen Institute and considered to be an expert on the U.S. housing market and the foreclosure crisis, says the coming housing crisis will be a housing shortage. Home sales and median sales price have both increased, while existing inventory has declined 24.4 percent, when comparing Q2 2011 to Q2 2012. Average home construction has been 1,531,900 each year between 1968 and 2008, but dropped to 647,600 between 2009 and 2011, according to the U.S. Census. The Joint Center for Housing Studies says the nation will need 1.18 million to 1.38 million housing units per year to meet the demand between now and 2020. Writes Charfen: “We will see a constrained inventory market in the immediate future. Couple this with the fact that housing is more affordable than it has ever been, and interest rates are at record lows, and the picture of an oncoming national shortage becomes much clearer.” As MHProNews has learned, due to the slowdown of the homebuilding industry in terms of supplies, suppliers, and available labor, the market could not respond to an increased demand very quickly.
