Faster by Design: The Challenge to Deliver Attainable Housing

The United States is short an estimated 2 to 6 million homes, the result of more than a decade of underbuilding, increasing regulatory complexity, and declining productivity across the construction sector. There are no near-term fixes for these structural challenges, but there is growing urgency to address them.

That urgency, combined with social pressure, political will, and rapid technological change, is creating a generational opportunity. Moments like this are rare; the last time housing was reimagined at scale was in the decades following World War II.

Today, similar forces are converging again, opening the door for builders to rethink how homes are designed, delivered, and financed. The question is no longer whether action is required, but how the industry can move faster, at scale, and with shared risk.

The data is unambiguous. According to the National Association of Home Builders, regulatory costs—direct and indirect­—account for approximately 24% of the price of a new single-family home in 2021, before land, labor, or materials are factored in. In high-cost and coastal markets, that burden is likely higher.

At the same time, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies reports that more than half of all renter households are now cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their income toward housing. And first-time homeownership rates among younger households continue to decline, even as demand for well-located, attainable homes remains strong. Builders are being asked to solve a national affordability crisis while bottlenecked by a litany of obstacles and trying to maintain reasonable profitability.

Innovation is often treated as a secondary solution behind regulatory reform, labor and immigration policy, or input pricing. But now, new construction systems, off-site methods, alternative materials, digital workflows, and delivery models represent real pathways to improved productivity and affordability.

The challenge is that innovation still carries perceived risk: new ideas frequently require upfront investment, operational change, and regulatory navigation before returns are realized. In isolation, that burden can be prohibitive, but builders no longer need to shoulder it alone.

Measured, collaborative pathways to innovation are emerging that shift the risk profile. By engaging with organized platforms and pilot environments, builders can accelerate new solutions for development and deployment. When innovation is pursued this way, the upside is clearer, the exposure is manageable, and the reward is worth the commitment.

Housing as a Product System

One of the most important shifts now underway is a move away from housing as a series of bespoke, one-off projects toward housing as a repeatable product system. This does not imply uniformity or a loss of consumer choice. Instead, it reflects the need for customization within a predefined kit of parts that balances standardization with flexibility.

A product-based approach enables tighter cost control, improved quality assurance, faster timelines, and greater confidence for lenders, insurers, and regulators. It also mirrors how builders already operate at scale: families of plans, standardized assemblies, coordinated supply chains, and delivery systems that can adapt to local conditions without starting from scratch on every project.

This shift reframes innovation. Rather than chasing novelty, innovation becomes incremental, measurable, and transferable. Ideas are tested under real conditions, refined through use, and scaled responsibly.

The Role of Local Policies Toward a Solution

Municipal leaders are grappling with these same pressures from another vantage point. The U.S. Conference of Mayors consistently identifies housing affordability and supply as one of the most pressing challenges affecting workforce retention, economic competitiveness, and long-term growth.

And while federal and state tools matter, local decisions around zoning, permitting timelines, and inspection processes often determine whether housing is delivered at all.

This reality is fueling a change in how municipal leaders engage with the development community. Local policymakers and planners are increasingly seeking credible partners who can help test new delivery models without compromising safety, durability, or long-term value.
Builders, in turn, need clearer and more predictable pathways through local processes, particularly when introducing new construction methods or delivery approaches.

At the federal level, recent bipartisan proposals in the House and Senate are drawing more attention to housing affordability. These efforts have focused on permitting reform, zoning incentives, expanded financing tools, and support for innovative construction methods, including off-site and industrialized approaches.

While this momentum is important, policy alone will not deliver homes. Markets change when solutions are proven under real conditions and costs are clearly understood.

A Platform for De-Risking Innovation

This is where coordinated innovation platforms play a critical role. The Housing Innovation Alliance, an industry think tank involving multiple stakeholders, was formed to address a persistent gap in the housing ecosystem: the lack of a durable, repeatable mechanism for testing innovation under real market conditions.

Rather than advancing isolated pilots or temporary showcases, the Alliance brings together builders, cities, academic institutions, and industry partners to share risk, align incentives, and document outcome. 

One initiative operating within this broader platform is the Housing Innovation Challenge. The Challenge demonstrates how de-risking innovation can function in practice. Full-scale, permanent homes are delivered on real sites, within real regulatory frameworks, and evaluated on performance metrics the market cares about most—cost, constructability, speed to market, regulatory navigation, durability, and total cost of ownership.

Academic teams contribute research capacity and systems thinking. Builders bring constructability expertise and market discipline. Cities participate as collaborators rather than gatekeepers. Industry partners support material and systems integration.

The result is a shared learning environment where innovation is grounded in reality and structured for transferability.

Building on a Legacy

The Solar Decathlon (now the the BuildingsNEXT Student Design Competition) conceived and produced by the U.S. Department of Energy, proved that a consistent national design-build competition could accelerate innovation, reshape architectural education, and create a workforce pipeline in which students tested and validated ideas at full scale. 

Its impact extended well beyond solar technology, influencing building performance standards, market awareness, and professional training.

The Challenge adopts this same foundation while evolving it to meet today’s housing realities. For the first phase of the Challenge, 20 interdisciplinary teams from leading university programs in architecture, engineering, construction, business, and public policy are developing solutions focused on housing systems, delivery models, and affordability.

The key difference is what happens next. Rather than stopping at temporary exhibitions or conceptual prototypes, the Challenge will carry the most promising ideas forward into Phase 2: Permanent pilot projects.

In Phase 2, finalist teams of students are paired with builders to deliver code-compliant, financeable homes in Charlotte, N.C. The intent is to demonstrate how academic innovation can move directly into the market as repeatable housing solutions.

Charlotte: The First Chapter of a Long-Term Journey

Charlotte will serve as the inaugural host city for the Housing Innovation Challenge, but it is only the beginning. The platform is structured as a 10-year, multi-market effort, with a new host city every two years. 

With that, each cycle builds directly on the last, leveraging ideas that prove transferable, refining those that require local calibration, and allowing lessons to compound rather than reset.

This approach creates a national feedback loop. Ideas tested in Charlotte inform future markets, and lessons learned in subsequent cities feed back into earlier assumptions.

The goal is not to replicate identical homes across the country, but to replicate a process for delivering attainable housing more predictably regardless of geography.

A Call to Engage

For builders, the on-ramp is straightforward: participate as a builder-mentor, help pressure-test finalist concepts for constructability, and shape what’s viable before it reaches the market.

With municipalities and industry partners supporting innovation pathways for builders and university teams, the Challenge fosters greater leadership, shared accountability, and a collective commitment to moving from ideas to implementation.

The housing crisis in America is urgent and complex, but it also creates a rare opportunity to rebuild productivity, reignite the spirit of innovation, and rethink how homes are delivered at scale.

With collaborative platforms that prioritize deployment over debate and shared learning over isolation, the next decade of housing innovation can deliver homes that are more attainable, more resilient, and better aligned with the realities facing builders and communities across the country.

_{Go here to learn more about the Housing Innovation Challenge and opportunities to get involved.}