How 2020 broke the housing market: So many homes are selling that we could run out of new houses in months

A house is the most desirable get amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the US is barreling toward an inventory shortage and affordability crisis that'll make homeownership unattainable.

• The hottest pandemic purchase is a house, as more and more Americans take advantage of low mortgage rates to attain spacious backyards and more comfortable work-from-home locales.
• Existing home sales, which have trended upward for the last 3 months since the housing market reopened from shutdown, soared to a 14-year high in August. New home sales are also up.
• Home prices are soaring, too, recording the highest two-month appreciation between May and July — at 2% — in 30 years of record-keeping.
• But not enough new houses are being built to keep up with demand, a trend that actually goes back a decade.
• Homebuying, in all its trendy glory, only projects to get more expensive, if not impossible. If homes keep selling at this rate, Bloomberg estimates the inventory of new homes could actually run out in just a few months.
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