How Big Is America's Housing Shortage?

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How Big Is America's Housing Shortage? No One Agrees Link

• Estimates for the national housing gap vary wildly between 3 million and 20 million units because experts can't agree on how to define a "household" or what a healthy vacancy rate looks like.

• While Zillow and Brookings see a shortage of roughly 4.7 to 4.9 million homes, House Republicans claim the deficit is as high as 20.1 million units.

• The confusion is made worse by a glut of high-end homes that stay empty because they are unaffordable, leaving it unclear if those units actually help solve the shortage.

The Youngest Metro in the U.S. Revealed: Where the Median Age of Buyers Is 27 and Birth Rates Are High Link

• The Provo-Orem area in Utah has the youngest homebuyers in the country, with a median buyer age of just 27.

• High birth rates and a large population of young professionals drive demand here, even though median home prices have climbed toward the $500,000 range.

• Local government and lenders are supporting these young buyers through specialized down payment assistance and incentives of up to $20,000 for first-time owners.

Investors Plan to Buy More CRE in 2026 Link

• About 74 percent of investors surveyed by CBRE say they plan to purchase more commercial property this year than they did in 2025.

• Most of these buyers are focusing on multifamily and industrial buildings, though interest in retail and office spaces is slowly starting to pick up.

• Investors are feeling more confident because of expected interest rate cuts and a smaller pipeline of new buildings, which helps keep property values steady.

Shopping Centers Poised for Record Pricing in 2026 Link

• Low inventory and $4.5 billion in new investment capital are driving prices to a record average of $142 per square foot.

• Property values are rising because many centers have older leases that can be raised by 20% to 40% to match current market rates.

• While sales are up 35% since 2019, the market is vulnerable because small "mom-and-pop" tenants make up nearly 40% of the occupancy.

Austin, Once a Boomtown, Is Now the Slowest Major Housing Market Link

• Austin is now the slowest among the 50 largest U.S. metros, with the average home sitting on the market for 106 days.

• A huge gap between supply and demand is driving this, as the city has 128% more sellers than buyers.

• High mortgage rates and more inventory have cooled things down so much that median prices dropped about 4.2% over the last year.

Tool of the day: BrokerSpot

BrokerSpot is an AI-powered real estate lead generation tool for agents. It provides high-quality leads, a user-friendly dashboard for deal management, customizable landing pages, and seamless CRM integration to enhance sales and business expansion.

CoStar Rolls Out Homes.ai; SkySlope Launches Agent Coaching App link 

Major industry players are doubling down on vertically integrated AI, moving beyond simple search to provide real-time coaching and predictive analytics directly within the agent's workflow.

How AI is Transforming Real Estate Pricing and Housing Market Forecasts link 

AI is fundamentally altering U.S. market dynamics by replacing lagging historical data with real-time sentiment and economic indicators to produce hyper-accurate pricing models.

Revolutionizing Real Estate: How AI and Big Data are Shaping the Future of Property Markets link 

The integration of big data and machine learning is creating a more transparent U.S. real estate landscape where investment risks are mitigated through highly granular property-level intelligence.

• ScyAI, a Swiss RE risk intelligence stack, raised a €2M pre-seed led by AEN.

• Maestro, a mortgage origination stack, raised a $1.2M pre-seed led by New Stack.

Yardi Matrix Updates U.S. Multifamily Rent, Supply and Completions Data 

6 Trends Reshaping U.S. Property Insurance 

Six Takeaways from the NMHC Annual Meeting 

MOBs Post Top Risk-Adjusted Returns, Low Volatility in New Study 

What home buyers really want in 2026: New Trends

Proptech Startups That Just Got Funded

Ranked: The Richest Americans in History

Dare you to find a fault!

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Cheers,

Vidit

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