Norbert Michel
Norbert Michel and Jerome Famularo

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced a much higher rate of inflation than at any time during the prior few decades. Like the prices of many goods and services, the cost of housing rose rapidly, with the median home price increasing almost $100,000. (Figure 1.) Unsurprisingly, many potential homebuyers were—and still are—shocked and upset.

As in years past, many politicians have latched on to the anger surrounding the recent housing market turmoil. During the presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “Here’s the thing: we know that we have a shortage of homes and housing. And the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people.” Prior to the election, Donald Trump outlined his solutions, and now federal officials want to implement a host of policies, ranging from subsidies to selling federal land.
But is the United States really facing a housing crisis? Or a shortage of homes? And should Americans really expect recent federal policy proposals to make housing more affordable?
For the past few weeks, we’ve run a series of posts on Cato at Liberty to examine these questions, and this post is the last in that series. (Previous posts are here, here, here, here, here, and here.) Each post started with the same set of caveats—here’s a shorter version: 

Local officials should relax zoning restrictions and other regulations to make it easier and less costly for people to live, and to allow builders and developers to more easily meet demand.
Many Americans have taken an economic beating these past few years—real wages have fallen, and prices (including home prices) have not reverted to pre-COVID-19 levels. It is no surprise that so many people have been calling for federal intervention in the hopes of ameliorating that economic burden.  » Read More
https://www.cato.org/blog/questioning-housing-crisis-recap-wrap