For years, a housing shortage has been at the core of a widening affordability crisis, but not all regional markets are quite so undersupplied. America’s largest home-building boomtowns are located predominantly in the South, where land is more readily available, builders are combatting fewer expensive building regulations, and prices are lower than in homebuying hotspots such as California, Realtor.com reports.
Myrtle Beach, S.C., is seeing the greatest influx of new-home construction with 11,550 single-family permits issued in 2022. It’s followed by Ocala, Fla., with a total of 5,318 permits issued in 2022, and Salisbury, Md., with 4,271 permits.
“Builders are simply following where more Americans are moving,” says George Ratiu, a senior economist and manager of economic research at Realtor.com. “These are fast-growing cities, with a lot of lifestyle amenities and a lot of young people and professionals moving in. Builders have recognized this and are trying to catch up to this incredible growth.”
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