There is a whole lot of commentaries and opinions regarding the housing shortage in the United States.
And you can count on lame street media to echo what their sponsors want creating a new mania every couple of weeks.
But we can also relay on the actual data. Below is the number of housing units in the us on the left and the number of EMPTY housing units on the right.
With the number of empty units exceeding 10%, it seems to me there is more of a tenant shortage!
Take a look at the ratio of housing units divided by the population. We can see the change since 2002 (the housing unit series does not go further back), and its general trend is increasing not decreasing. The slope is less than one, that is because we are dividing by the total population.
Perhaps we can drive the point home if we redo the above graph but this take take the ratio of housing units to the the households. The ratio is above one, and that indicates more housing units than households. And the difference is anywhere from 8% to 12%, so can you please tell me about the shortage.