Some US cities may finally be meeting housing demand

Dive Brief:

Developers in America's largest cities may finally be responding to the current robust housing demand, according to a CityLab analysis of Census Bureau data.
CityLab tracked what it calls “new dwellability” by comparing population increases in the 10 fastest-growing U.S. cities with the number of people that the new residential units in those cities can house.
Phoenix topped the list with the largest population gain, but it has enough unoccupied building stock to meet current demand. However, housing has been slow to respond to population growth in cities like Austin, TX, San Antonio, San Diego and Seattle.

Dive Insight:

Despite efforts to add housing stock, many of the country's biggest cities face a continued housing crunch as rising population counts bring more demand. Los Angeles, Seattle and New York City all ranked among the top 10 fastest-growing cities on CityLab’s list, as did a number of metros in Texas.

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, one of the nation's fastest-growing metro areas, saw its median home price exceed the national median home price in Q1, marking one of the country's biggest home-price increases for the period. The area’s rapid development has some analysts concerned that it may lose its reputation as a traditionally affordable market.

Houston is also experiencing population growth, leading a cohort of 11 major U.S. metros each growing by more than 1,000 people per week, according to an American City Business Journals report. State-wide population growth will continue to drive home prices and sales to record highs, the Texas Association of Realtors noted.

While new housing development is helping to curb some of the pressure in Texas, many markets across the country are strained by a lack of low- and middle-income housing.

San Francisco, for example, is incentivizing developers to include affordable units in their projects — though, currently, each of four key counties in the Bay Area have 10,000 fewer rental units than are required to accommodate all tenants in need of affordable housing. Similarly, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hopes to alleviate the state's affordable inventory shortage with a $20 billion, five-year plan to build and maintain more than 110,000 affordable units.