One issue currently facing the mortgage industry is a lack of supply, or as rapper Cardi B said over the weekend in her analysis of high home prices and rents, “a lack of m*****f***ing inventory.” She does have a point: Despite the increase in rates continuing to dampen demand and put downward pressure on home prices, inventory remains inadequate. Versus last year, shoppers do have more homes to consider, although inventory still isn’t back to pre-pandemic levels. Who wants to sell their home when they have a 3 percent 30-year fixed rate mortgage and move to a home where the rate would be closer to 6 percent? We learned yesterday that home values fell for the second consecutive month and builders are cutting prices and adding incentives as the confidence of builders in the new home market fell for the ninth straight month, according to NAHB. The way to stabilize values is to build more housing, but if nobody wants to build then that presents a problem. And who would buy these newly built homes? A recent study revealed adults with school-aged children will account for nearly one in four home sales over the next 10 months. Families with kids over 18 and empty nesters will also be active, singles and retirees not as much. In 2021, according to the National Association of Realtors, the typical buyer was 33 years old, while the typical repeat buyers were at an all-time high of 56 years of age. And according to Freddie Mac, millennials purchased more than half of all mortgage loans in the past two years. Millennials surpassed baby boomers as the largest demographic in 2019 at 72.2 million in population. So, the average buyer is young and uses technology as a tool to buy everything, including homes and rates. But would millennials be okay with a 3D printed house? (Today’s podcast is available here and this week’s is sponsored by Richey May, a recognized leader in providing specialized advisory, audit, tax, technology and other services in the mortgage industry and in banking.)