This is interesting…you should take the time to read these articles…Housing Shortage?…I have said before that there will come a time here in Alexandria, when buyers cannot find the property that they are looking for…to some degree that has already started…judging by how many homes people look at before they do find one to buy.  I remember periods of time in the last 27+ years of selling real estate here when we did not have listings.

This is from National Association of Home Builders Online News.Slow Recovery May Be Leading to Serious Housing Shortages. February 22.2010

This one I pulled from Real Estate Investing for Real. Housing Shortage Looms. March 1.2010

And this one I pulled from National Association of Home Builders Online News.Eye on the Economy: Housing Stumbles on Road to Recovery. March 8.2010

In Alexandria, if you read the permit report from last week that I blogged, there is less new home construction here as well.  Once our existing inventory depletes itself, which will happen, new construction will kick in.  It has to, Alexandria is on the course to grow.

In reading the February 22, 2010 report, “NAHB Economists project that the industry will need to deliver 16 million homes over the next 10 years to keep pace with demand…NAHB is forecasting 647,000 total housing starts in 2010 and 991,000 in 2011, an indication of expectations for housing to recover at a relatively slow pace.”

“Population growth currently requires 1.5 million new homes per year according to Brian Wesbury, Chief Economist of First Trust Advisors in an interview with Steve Forbes.  And if you throw in, you know, fires and tears-downs and just worn-out properties, we need 1.6 million more per year.  The housing starts are between 500-600,000.  We’re starting one-third of the homes we need just to keep up with poplulation growth.  Wesbury told Forbes he thinks real estate is one of the secret investments over the next decade in the interview.”

I find this fascinating…any comments from anyone out there in cyberspace?