Summary
Realtor.com has expanded Let America Build into an industry-wide housing-supply campaign with Zillow, NAHB, eXp, HomeServices of America, Veterans United, Habitat for Humanity and other organizations. The coalition is focused on public education and local action around zoning, permitting, land use and construction. The campaign cites a 4.03 million-home U.S. supply gap and arrives as permitting and new-home mortgage demand are weakening.
Some of the housing industry’s biggest companies, trade groups and nonprofits are joining forces around a message that has often splintered across local zoning fights and national affordability debates: the United States needs to make it easier to build homes.
Realtor.com announced Tuesday that its Let America Build initiative is expanding into an industry-wide national public-awareness campaign with founding participants spanning brokerage, portals, homebuilding, mortgage lending, housing advocacy and construction technology.
The coalition includes Realtor.com, Zillow, T3 Sixty, eXp Realty and NextHome, the National Association of Home Builders, Veterans United, Habitat for Humanity, ICON, Land Use Labs, HomeServices of America, RISMedia, the Asian Real Estate Association of America, the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.
The campaign does not endorse candidates, political parties or ballot measures. Its stated focus is public education and local action around land use, permitting, housing types and construction.
“America’s housing shortage is pricing renters and buyers out of the communities they love. We know what’s driving it and we know what will fix it: streamlining permitting, modernizing zoning and unlocking land that’s already there.”
Jeremy Wacksman, CEO of Zillow
The expansion comes as the industry attempts to turn broad agreement about a national housing shortage into changes that are largely controlled by states, counties and municipalities.
A 4.03 million-home deficit
Realtor.com estimates the United States entered 2026 with a housing supply gap of 4.03 million homes. Its research found construction failed to keep pace with demand in 2025, pushing the estimated shortage above four million units.
The campaign is also highlighting the cost of regulation. Citing National Association of Home Builders research, organizers say government regulation, taxes, fees and other costs account for more than 26% of the price of an average new single-family home.
Those figures arrive at an awkward moment for builders. WRE News reported Monday that residential permitting over the 12 months through July fell 1.7% from the prior year and remained 19.4% below Zillow’s pre-pandemic trend. Austin, San Antonio, Orlando and Charlotte were among the major markets with particularly steep pullbacks.
Mortgage demand is weakening as well. MBA’s Builder Application Survey released Tuesday showed applications for new-home purchases fell 5.5% from a year earlier in August and declined for a fifth consecutive month.
That combination underscores the challenge behind the campaign. The country can have a structural shortage of homes at the same time that high borrowing costs make it harder for builders to sell the homes they are producing today.
Federal policy meets local control
Let America Build began as a Realtor.com initiative introduced at South by Southwest in 2025. The new coalition is positioning the campaign as a next step following enactment of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.
Organizers say the law gives states and localities additional tools, flexibility and incentives to support housing, but many of the decisions that determine actual production remain local: what can be built on a parcel, how many units are allowed, how long approvals take and what fees or requirements attach to development.
“Let America Build brings industry stakeholders together with officials at every level of government to address the nation’s housing affordability crisis by removing inefficient zoning rules, unnecessary regulations, permitting delays and other barriers that keep builders from delivering more affordable, attainable homes.”
Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders
Realtor.com said the campaign’s website will provide examples and resources intended to explain how land-use rules, permitting, housing types and construction affect supply.
The coalition itself is the story
Housing groups have advocated for supply reforms for years. What makes Tuesday’s announcement more notable is the breadth of organizations willing to put their brands behind the same public campaign.
Zillow and Realtor.com compete for housing consumers. eXp and HomeServices operate in different corners of the brokerage market. NAHB represents builders, Veterans United operates in mortgage lending, Habitat for Humanity works in affordable homeownership, and ICON is associated with construction technology. Trade and affinity organizations bring still different constituencies.
That does not mean the members will agree on every zoning proposal, affordability mandate or federal housing program. Nor does a national awareness campaign guarantee that a city council will approve denser housing or shorten a permitting process.
But it creates a shared platform around a proposition that has become increasingly difficult for the housing industry to avoid: affordability cannot be addressed only through cheaper financing or buyer assistance if the underlying supply of homes remains constrained.
The measure of Let America Build will therefore not be the number of organizations that join it. It will be whether a national coalition can influence thousands of local decisions that determine whether housing actually gets built.
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