Comment by phendrenad2

This is correct. The population is growing faster than new homes are being built, especially in hot economic regions that people are migrating to for the promise of a better job (CA, NYC, Seattle, Denver). It's always implied that this is a problem, but renting is fine. Home ownership is just a form of renting where you stop paying the mortgage at some point, and keep having to pay the property tax and HOA dues. Some people seem to think that passing a home down to their children is better than passing money down, but I don't see how that makes any sense.