[MBCook]

I can sort of understand that.

They’ve been building houses in my area non-stop since 2010 or so. Prices haven’t gone down.

There are other factors than supply. But most of the new supply is large houses. If you don’t want 4+ bedrooms and a 2000+ sq. ft. house the supply hasn’t changed much at all.

[mattmaroon]

Well, you would have to compare it to an imaginary world in which they didn’t build those homes since 2010. Prices may not have gone down, but in the imaginary world, they might have gone up markedly so it has still reduced housing costs compared to if they did not build that much.

[AnimalMuppet]

OK, that's an interesting point. There's not "the housing market". There are several markets, with some overlap. The market for starter homes is not filled by building 4+ bedrooms, still less the market for studio apartments.

And my impression is that, when we talk about the housing shortage, we're talking about apartments to starter homes, not about 4+ bedrooms. So what we seem to have is a disconnect between what the market needs and what builders are building.

But maybe that's only "seem". I'd bet that a 4+ bedroom house sits on the market a lot longer than a starter house. Maybe starter houses are being built, but not enough to satisfy the market, and so they're going almost immediately?

[MBCook]

I’m sure it’s not zero that are being built. But it doesn’t seem like a very high number, at least compared to the number of large homes being built in new subdivisions.

[kube-system]

> They’ve been building houses in my area non-stop since 2010 or so. Prices haven’t gone down.

Real or nominal?

> There are other factors than supply.

It is not uncommon for places with a lot of housing development to also be places with rising housing demand because it is a growing area.

> If you don’t want 4+ bedrooms and a 2000+ sq. ft. house the supply hasn’t changed much at all.

And many of the people buying large new home are moving out of a smaller existing home.

[supertrope]

Single family houses are a premium product and continue to move upmarket. Cheap new construction house has become an oxymoron. Residential construction costs were rising at 5.5% per year before Covid (faster than inflation). If it were legal to build more condos, duplexes, townhomes, and apartments there would be less bidding up of SFHs. More people could live closer in meaning less traffic congestion.