America has a housing problem. Home prices are at an all-time high, inventory is at a low, and those in a position to fix the problem are ignoring it.
Charlie Kirk asked America’s young people to get married, buy a home and have lots of kids. He encouraged them to live the American dream and own a piece of America. Sadly, most of our kids cannot buy their piece-of-America, they can only rent it. Which is not good for America’s future. Renters will abandon neighborhoods being infested by crime, while homeowners will unite and fight.
The U.S. had 138 million housing units in 2018, 1.3 million (or 0.9%) of them were on the active market list (up-for-sale). Seven years later, in 2025, the total number of units increased by 10 million to 148 million; the number on the active market list dropped to 1.03 million (or 0.69% of the total available).
During the same period, 8 million units were purchased and converted to rentals, 60 million young American buyers began looking for their first home, and 14 million illegal immigrant families rented whatever they could find, even if that meant sharing a house with other families.
I expected American developers and builders to capitalize on the housing shortage, but they didn’t. I asked a local builder why. He explained it this way.
“My profit margin on a new home is between 6% and 10%. Most of the homes I build are priced at $150 per square foot. Therefore, a 4,000 sq. ft. house will sell for $600,000 and a 10% profit will net me $60,000. A 1,200 sq. ft.’ starter home’ will sell for $180,000 and my net profit is $18,000. Permit and inspection delays make it impossible for me to build 3.3 ‘starter homes’ in the same time frame as it takes to build takes to build one 4,000 sq. ft. ‘next home’. Where is the incentive to build new ‘starter homes?’”
Today’s real estate rental market provides a good ROI, with security, and an opportunity to make a long-term profit. Millions of homeowners are supplementing their income by using their home’s equity to buy nearby homes and rent them out. Public and private REITs keep sales and rental prices high by converting existing homes into rentals and by building more rental than for-sale units. This trend must be reversed. It is shrinking the American middle class and putting us on a fast tack to becoming a feudal nation of landowners and tenants.
Owning a piece of the country where we live makes it our country. Owning a home in America, no matter how humble, makes us royalty in our own castles and stakeholders in our own government.
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