> The construction boom, nonetheless, has improved rent affordability, according to Realtor.com data.

When people throw around the word shortage what they mean is "availability at a price I'm willing to pay." Same with labor shortages.

1 - The median apartment this year may be different than the median apartment 3 years ago. Perhaps cheaper (or smaller) apartments and houses are coming up for rent. A more accurate measure would be comparing the prior rents to new rents for existing places.

2 - Median doesn't equal mean. The 50th percentile apartment may be cheaper, while the 25th (more applicable for housing affordability discussion) or 75th (more applicable to HN readers) may be higher.

3 - The median is still up 20% over pre-pandemic levels.

4 - To measure housing shortage we should check levels of homelessness based on economic reasons. (Much more complicated than median price)

There is plenty of housing, but in a capitalist market of supply versus demand, the loudest group are going to be those who want to live in the expensive housing but can't afford it.

The story shows 28/44 metro areas had decreasing rents last year, so 64%. That still means that the other 16 had rising rents.

My guess is that rents lag inflation quite a bit, so the (slight) decrease is basically reflecting the drop in inflation over the past couple years. So, yes rents dropped 1% last year but they’re up 20% over 5 years.

I do believe that the US has a significant shortage of housing that is high quality in city centers. Families don’t want to live in apartments in this country so they end up living 20+ miles from their work and spending a huge amount on transportation.

“I’m not seeing many first-time homebuyers right now,” said Nicole Stewart, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Boise, ID. “Rental rates here are still more manageable than saving up for a down payment and mortgage. People are finding rentals that are nicer than the house they could afford at the same monthly cost. That’s in part because a lot of home sellers are overpricing their properties as they struggle to adjust to the changing housing market.”

> The typical U.S. homebuyer needs to earn over $50,000 more than the typical renter to afford monthly housing payments, and the gap has been widening due to high home prices and mortgages rates.

I’ve heard that buying a house is being “long” on the local labor market. What this is suggesting is that labor markets (i.e. salaries) in general have not kept pace with inflation and higher interest rates.