A study was completed in 2010. A very comprehensive study that answered a simple question:
How many units must be built every year to keep up with population growth, wage growth, migration, dilapidation, urban sprawl development, etc?
The answer, in 2010, was 1.1 million units per year. In 2010! Let's do the math since 2010....
2010: 586,900
2011: 608,800
2012: 780,600
2013: 924,900
2014: 1,003,000
2015: 1,111,800
2016: 1,173,800
2017: 1,203,000
2018: 1,249,900
2019: 1,289,800
So, over the last four years, we have eaten into the pent up demand by approximately 500,000 units in total. But how much pent up demand is there? Do the math. It's incredible.
I prefer another avenue. In 1981, there were 229 million people in the US when Reagan took office. We averaged over 1.5 million housing starts annually in his presidency.
In 2017, there were 326 million people in the US when Trump took office. We have averaged 1.25 Million housing annually in his presidency.