A Phil Hall Op-Ed: Last week, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) number-crunched data from the American Community Survey and came up with a remarkable result: Roughly half of the nation’s housing stock was built in the 1980s and earlier, with slightly more than one-third built before 1970.
For many people, this is not a surprise. After all, residential construction began to slow since the Great Recession and never truly regained its mojo. The NAHB reported that new construction added nearly 3.6 million owner-occupied homes between 2020 and 2024, which accounts for a mere 4% of the total owner-occupied housing stock as of 2024. Homes built between 2010 and 2019 encompassed about 9% of the housing stock and properties constructed between 2000 and 2009 constituted 15%.
As a result, the percentage of homes that are at least 45 years old has been on the rise – it was 39% in 2014 and reached 47% in 2024.
That’s not to say no one is building new homes. But the supply of new properties is not keeping up with demand, and it seems the homes being constructed are beyond the price scope of too many Americans, particularly first-time buyers. Another data report from last week was ATTOM’s determination that homeowner affordability is absent throughout most of the country.
And since I’m pulling up data reports, I should note that last week there was news from Redfin that the current market has 46% more home sellers than buyers. While there are multiple factors behind this, there is the obvious fact that most buyers prefer a problem-free, brand-new home they can move into rather than a half-century-or-older place that will need lots of money for updates and repairs.
When I read this data, I remembered a news piece from last October when President Trump posted on social media that homebuilders were “sitting on 2 million empty lots” and directed Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to “get Big Homebuilders going and, by so doing, help restore the American Dream!”
We didn’t hear very much about that initiative until January when Pulte used his personal account on X to declare, “Builders who do business with Fannie and Freddie (which is most builders) need to start building out their lot supply, including optioned land which is “ready to go”. More to come on our actions we will take.”
Pulte followed up another post that stated, “Builders need to do the right thing and build out those lots – NOW. And lenders need to do the right thing NOW!
Well, did they do the right thing? A few press reports sourced from unnamed “people familiar with the issue” claimed the heads of the major home building companies met with Pulte and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to discuss this matter. In February, there was another press report based on input from unnamed “sources familiar with the proposal” that claimed the builders put forth a proposal to create entry-level “Trump Homes” where investors rented the homes to tenants, with a portion of monthly payments going to a future down payment. The renters would be able to buy the homes after three years of tenancy.
The proposal included a goal of one million homes. However, the Trump administration rejected the proposal and no further mention of it has popped up.
The Trump administration has since moved away from this subject. Pulte, who was supposed to be driving this effort, has parked and exited in search of something much easier – like insulting Jerome Powell.
Congress is no help, either. The rival housing reform bills in the House and Senate offer bureaucratic solutions to the matter, but those ideas will only expand government operations with the vague hope that someone will eventually build a new home or two.
So, where does that leave us? At the moment, with a housing market where nearly half of the properties are from the 1980s or earlier and no initiative to bring new inventory to the market.
Clearly, new ideas are needed to solve this mess. But new ideas, like new houses, are an elusive commodity in today’s environment.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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