Opinion | America Needs to Build More Housing - The New York Times

In 1950 the median home price in the United States was $7,400 — only 2.5 times the median annual household income.

For decades afterward, as incomes rose, home prices grew only slightly faster. In 1985 the ratio was 3.1.

But that ratio began surging in the 2000s. Today the median home costs almost five times the median household income.

In coastal areas that tightly limit construction, the ratio has soared. It has reached 12.4 in San Francisco.

Austin, on the other hand, recently built tens of thousands of homes. The median home there costs only 4.6 times the median income.

By The Editorial Board<br>The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.<br>May 18, 2026

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In the second half of the 20th century, it was easy for many young Americans to imagine buying a home early in their adult lives. Then something changed: The nation kept gaining population but stopped building enough homes to keep up.<br>The mismatch between supply and demand has caused home prices to soar in the 21st century, damaging both our economy and our social fabric. High prices prevent families from buying homes, feeling fully invested in their communities and building wealth. They increase generational inequality and breed cynicism among people in their 20s and 30s. They can prevent couples from having as many children as they want.<br>The toll is heightened by the fact that many of the cities with the most dynamic economies are the ones where housing is least accessible, including Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Some young renters who would like to remain in these areas leave for cheaper housing elsewhere. People from other regions sometimes cannot move in to accept new jobs, preventing them from taking a step on a path of upward mobility.

Median incomeHome price at 3x income1 coin = $10,000less than 3x3-5x5-10x10x and up

The regional variation in home prices today is striking and wider than it was in past decades.

Boston and New York City have built at a sluggish pace, and prices have soared.

The San Francisco Bay Area has built even fewer homes, resulting in the one of the nation’s highest price-to-income ratios.

Austin and other Texas cities offer a different story. They have allowed more construction, and homes there are more affordable than elsewhere.

Basic economic principles point to the solution: More supply of an item tends to lead to lower prices. Cities like Austin, Texas, have remained more affordable largely because they have built so many more homes.<br>Over the past decade, Austin has broken ground on 140 homes for every 1,000 households, compared with only 22 in San Francisco, 23 in New York and 27 in Boston. Austin’s construction boom is one reason that, even as the local population has grown, home prices have fallen 13 percent in the past several years, and rents have fallen, too. The new developments include a 66-story downtown skyscraper known as 6G, which is the city’s second-tallest building, and Easton Park, a suburban-style community where two-bedroom homes can sell for less than $325,000.<br>To be clear, Austin’s real estate market remains expensive. The area’s ratio of median home price to median income is 4.6, much higher than the ratio in most of the United States from the 1950s through the 1990s. Austin, too, would benefit from more construction.<br>The situation in expensive coastal areas, however, is far worse. They have enacted onerous zoning and building rules that limit home construction. They have allowed the “not in my backyard” instinct to prevail. Many of these areas vote Democratic and identify as politically progressive, yet their housing policies have increased inequality. By maximizing home prices, these parts of blue America have benefited existing homeowners, who tend to be older and richer, at the expense of everyone else.<br>Nationwide, the relationship between home prices and home construction is even stronger than many Americans realize.<br>More expensiveMore houses builtAverage housing starts per 1,000 householdsPrice-to-income ratio<br>More expensiveMore houses built

This chart compares the rate of home construction over the past decade with the median home price in each area.

These areas have not built very much, and prices are high relative to incomes.

These areas are the opposite: They have built aggressively and kept prices lower.

In this corner are places that remain affordable despite not having built very much. Some are cities in relative decline, where housing supply is not expanding much but demand to live there is modest.

This corner contains places where prices are high despite high levels of construction. It contains fewer metro areas than the other corners. Some of the places here are resort towns where wealthy buyers have driven up prices.

To bring...