Nation’s Housing Report for 2021 — from The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (JCHS) has just released their 40-page State of the Nation’s Housing report for 2021. The report examines a year’s worth of data, trends and issues that are impacting the housing industry. This includes housing policy, market trends, household growth and composition, homeownership, affordability issues, rental markets, and more.

The Hardware and Building Supply Dealer magazine has provided a synopsis and break down of the report. HBS says that according to Daniel McCue, senior research associate at the JCHS, the breadth of issues covered in the report always makes it difficult to come up with a single headline to fully describe the contents of the report. However, McCue has broken down five of the biggest topics in the current housing climate, as follows: 1) inventory of homes for sale at historic low levels; 2) home prices are rising rapidly; 3) rents are down sharply for high-end apartments in high-cost markets; 4) renters and people of color fared the worst during the pandemic; and 5) unsheltered homelessness is growing.