Housing Gap Relative 2019 Cu

Chart of the Day: Housing Unit Growth v. Population Growth

Someone (apologies for I forget who) Tweeted out this report from the Met Council called simply “We Still Need More Housing” the other day. It’s got some great charts in it. Here are three of them.

Keep in mind that this is all metro-wide data. For example, check out this chart, comparing MSP to other US urban regions on a percentage (relative) basis:Housing Gap Relative 2019 B

The chart compares growth in housing stock to growth in population. The Twin Cities is doing poorly in providing new housing compared to population growth, and the gap is relatively worse than every other comparable metro other than Atlanta and San Francisco:

Housing Gap Relative 2019

 

The report argues we need to double the amount of annual new housing starts to meet demand.

See also this chart, which puts the need into perspective:

Housing Production V Gap 2019

Anyway, as I said, pretty compelling and seemingly unambiguous stuff. The presentation promises they will have data on affordability later in 2019, so that will fill in a lot more of the big picture around housing.

Bill Lindeke

About Bill Lindeke

Pronouns: he/him

Bill Lindeke has writing blogging about sidewalks and cities since 2005, ever since he read Jane Jacobs. He is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota Geography Department, the Cityscape columnist at Minnpost, and has written multiple books on local urban history. He was born in Minneapolis, but has spent most of his time in St Paul. Check out Twitter @BillLindeke or on Facebook.