I have been saying this for several years, so I am glad the Bloomberg News finally acknowledge it.
(Bloomberg) — The U.S. housing market, which has been a bright spot in the pandemic-battered economy, is running out of fuel.
With buyers eager to take advantage of low mortgage rates, the inventory of homes to buy is scarce. That’s driving up prices and threatening to derail the boom by pushing homeownership out of reach for many Americans.
For homebuilders, the huge demand for housing is an opportunity to crank up construction and solve the inventory crisis. Instead, some are deliberately slowing things down as they grapple with supply shortages, surging lumber costs and intense competition for labor and land.
Yes, available new home sales have generally increased since the great slump of 2012, but are slumping again. Note the recovery in new homes for sale when The Fed expanded their balance sheet in 2012-2013 with QE3.
The Fed helped set a fire in housing.