The American dream of home ownership is falling by the wayside for many in the country, particularly those below the age of 40. And why? If you want to know why youth in America are struggling to move from renting to home ownership, then look no further than the COVID years.
“COVID was the transformational, pivotal time in the building industry,” said Michael Burkentine, a homebuilder and a partner with the America First Policy Institute’s “Make Housing Great Again” initiative.
That’s when the shakiness of the supply chains made housing costs impossible to predict.
“As we went through COVID, I lost track of where pricing truly was,” he said. “It was so upsetting and disruptive to getting deals done and pricing houses out … you could price a house during those times on say, May 5, but the time we got to the house [to actually build it], we were taking it on the chin.”
This “price-stepping,” meaning the attempt to account in pricing for the sudden and unpredictable surges of costs during a short time frame, “became the new normal,” Burkentine said.
And the end result has been a lingering crisis in the affordable housing market, especially for first-time and younger buyers looking to get out of rental agreements and into wealth-building home ownership.
For more with Michael Burkentine on the state of America’s housing market, tune in.
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