Why Houses Are So Expensive In The U.S.

With Covid encouraging city dwellers to move to the suburbs and families looking for home offices and bigger yards, prices for the American dream home have skyrocketed. Home prices surged in March, up 13.2% from the year prior, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. “Everybody expected housing to really sort of dry up with the rest of the economy,” said National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard. “And in fact, the opposite has happened. People who have been sort of scared out of the cities by the pandemic.” With homeowners unwilling to sell, a record low supply of homes for sale has forced buyers into intense bidding wars. At the end of April, there were only million houses for sale in the U.S. down 20.5% from the year before. Higher costs for land, labor and building materials including lumber have also impacted homebuilders. With the 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovering near a 50-year low and strong demand pushing prices to all-time highs, why is the hou