The housing shortage in the US is getting worse.

[Kulindahr]

Every home takes up like an acre of land (at least), because they're not allowed to be any smaller.

Those days are long gone. When I moved back to help my mom take care of my dad, almost twenty years ago, the rule for developers was five houses on four acres. Fifteen years ago it was dropped to a half-acre per house, and now developers can get away with a fifth of an acre. Within city limits it's an eighth of an acre.

 

[Kahaih]

Number of people born in the United States today as of Tuesday, August 6, 2024 at 6:45:06 PM

8,350 people have been born in the United States today so far. A person is born approximately every 8.08 seconds.

www.indexmundi.com

 

[NotHardUp1]

You Americans have a shit housing policy. Every home takes up like an acre of land (at least), because they're not allowed to be any smaller. Most renters would do fine with a small apartment, though. But since every home needs to be so big, the demand can't be met.

Hi there.

Do you have a source for your information?

When I look online, the average single family home in the U.S. sits on under 1/.3 of an acre. Less than 2/3's of Americans live in single family homes. So, the average square feet of land Americans sit on is far less than 1/3 acre per family.

My impression is that Europeans have difficulty in conceiving the abundance of land in the U.S., and how underpopulated it is even before one considers Alaska's vastness. Our Midwest, South, and West Coast all have vast farm lands, able to not only supply the U.S. but to export huge amounts abroad. The towns in those regions (outside the West Coast) have shrunken dramatically over the past 130 years.

The cities where Americans have migrated are embarrassing blobs of overpopulation where predatory pricing makes the working poor a permanent underclass, unlike rural areas where families have a chance at upward mobility as well as enough room to breathe.

America simply is not hemmed in and stacked up the way Europe is, because we don't have to be.

 

[Kahaih]

What we know about unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S.

The unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S. grew to 11 million in 2022, but remained below the peak of 12.2 million in 2007.

www.pewresearch.org

What the data says about immigrants in the U.S.

As of June 2025, the country’s foreign-born population had shrunk by more than a million people, marking its first decline since the 1960s.

www.pewresearch.org

 

[Dominus]

A town up the coast passed an ordinance that limited rent to 5% less than the monthly cost of a 25-year loan to buy the place. Of course it;s being challenged in court!

Can you explain this ordinance to me? Suppose the monthly escrow is $1000. Does this mean rent cannot be more than $950/month?

What if the landlord owns the property outright?

 

[me203]

Those days are long gone. When I moved back to help my mom take care of my dad, almost twenty years ago, the rule for developers was five houses on four acres. Fifteen years ago it was dropped to a half-acre per house, and now developers can get away with a fifth of an acre. Within city limits it's an eighth of an acre.

There's a development in a nearby city that has houses on really tiny lots. The worst of two worlds--yard work AND no real isolation from neighbors.

 

[me203]

My impression is that Europeans have difficulty in conceiving the abundance of land in the U.S., and how underpopulated it is even before one considers Alaska's vastness.

I remember we had a German exchange student when I was in 12th grade. He commented what a shock it was for him seeing how different it was in the US vs. Europe when it came to having open space.

 

[PrinceCory]

My impression is that Europeans have difficulty in conceiving the abundance of land in the U.S., and how underpopulated it is even before one considers Alaska's vastness. Our Midwest, South, and West Coast all have vast farm lands, able to not only supply the U.S. but to export huge amounts abroad. The towns in those regions (outside the West Coast) have shrunken dramatically over the past 130 years.



America simply is not hemmed in and stacked up the way Europe is, because we don't have to be.

Preach! Well explained.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

My impression is that Europeans have difficulty in conceiving the abundance of land in the U.S., and how underpopulated it is even before one considers Alaska's vastness. Our Midwest, South, and West Coast all have vast farm lands, able to not only supply the U.S. but to export huge amounts abroad. The towns in those regions (outside the West Coast) have shrunken dramatically over the past 130 years.

Absolutely!

My country, The Netherlands must be the worst offender!

We can not conceive of the fact that many empires and even historical nations entail vast empty and desolate landscapes.

For such places for instance the caravanserails were conceived.

We think communting 50 km to work is far to the point of being impossible.

To an extent Germany is far more like the U.S., but even there distances are relatively small.

 

[smokeshadow]

It's not just the United States that people have difficulty conceiving the acreage of land the it encompasses. Texas, on the other hand, is a "Giant" unto itself. East to West, or Texarkana to El Paso is 811 miles. North to South, or Dalhart to Brownsville is 860 miles. And, Chicago, Illinois is closer to Texarkana than Texarkana is to El Paso (793 miles). To put these distances in perspective, it'll take about 12 hours to drive either direction. It is also one of the reasons that commuters in the major metropolitan areas in Texas see rush-hour commutes of 60 minutes or more; they live out in the countryside and drive into the metro areas daily for work.

 

[Nude_Dude]

And the cost of rent is out of control

As it is in Australia - and the rest of the first world
Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Canada (I'll assume) and your own U.S. all share the same problem with rental charges 'out of control' - or rental properties just not available.
BUYING a first home, is bordering on 'near impossible
These economies also share too high inflation, essential cost of living blow-outs - and, in some of these economies, unemployment rated 'disturbing' in trend.

These are almost identical WORLD-WIDE issues and problems.

Yet every election that rolls around, in all of these countries, the finger points to the incumbent government being responsible for all of this local 'economic missmanagement' as the cause.