There haven t been so many single-family homes under construction in the U.S. since 2007, yet many of these new houses won t be for sale.
Investors are building tens of thousands of houses expressly to rent in a bet that Americans will keep flocking to spacious suburban living even if they can t afford to buy homes.
The Covid-19 pandemic sparked a race for space among Americans, and home prices have surged to records. The gains have outpaced wage growth, straining affordability despite historically low borrowing costs.
Homeownership is unaffordable for average wage earners in 55% of U.S. counties, up from 43% a year earlier, according to Attom Data Solutions, a real-estate analytics firm. Meanwhile, single-family landlords have reported record occupancy and fast-rising rents since the pandemic began.
Otay Ranch continued to dominate new home sales in San Diego County in 2020, said an annual report from John Burns Real Estate Consulting.
There were 760 home sales in the Chula Vista development last year, making it the No. 17 top selling master-planned community in the nation in John Burns’ annual top 50 list. Based on data through November, nearly a third of all newly built homes sold in San Diego County were in Otay Ranch.
The 25,000-acre development, nearly the size of San Francisco, actually had 50 fewer sales in 2020 compared to the previous year when it ranked No. 8 on the list.
Scott Wild, vice president of John Burns, said the drop in sales had more to do with developers struggling to build enough homes nothing to do with demand. He said several builders laid off staff at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic anticipating a recession, not predicting the intense rise in home prices and demand for houses from workers stuck doing jobs from home.
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