Overview
- Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies released its State of the Nation’s Housing report on June 17 showing household growth fell from about 2.0 million per year in 2021 to 1.1 million in 2025 and is projected to average roughly 700,000 annually over the next decade.
- The report says high home prices and elevated mortgage rates are keeping many renters from buying, with home prices up about 54% since 2020 and existing-home sales at a three-decade low of 4.1 million in 2025.
- Rising nonmortgage ownership costs are increasing burdens on households: between 2019 and 2025 average property taxes rose about 31% and average monthly insurance premiums rose about 72%, and roughly half of renter households were cost-burdened in 2024.
- Supply signals are mixed as more construction added units after the pandemic but many new homes are unaffordable, national unsold inventory hit 127,000 in January 2026 and some metros show rising vacancies and falling rents while others remain tight.
- States have approved billions in housing spending and regulatory reforms but the report warns those efforts will not be enough without federal funding and coordinated action to address affordability, homelessness, climate risk and discrimination.