Coastal and Sun Belt cities are ramping up construction on housing—but not the kind of housing that most people can afford, with supply dominated by larger homes and tiny apartments priced for high-income earners.
That’s according to a new study from the Georgetown University Center on Poverty and Inequality, which studied housing data for Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
Those six metros beat national averages for homebuilding, Georgetown found, based on the share of new housing units as a share of the overall housing inventory.
Nationwide, about 11.35% of the housing stock came online from 2010 to 2023.
In the six metros, that number ranges from 12.7% to 22.4%.
Those numbers are a bright spot on a home construction market that slowed down in 2025. And while some states passed new laws to expedite home construction from the zoning side, challenges remain.
All of the cities but DC also house an outsized share of institutional investors. The federal government unveiled new limitations on them to tamp down on housing costs.
New owner-occupied units are larger
In each city, Georgetown found a narrow range of housing dominating the construction market. New owner-occupied units are larger, unlike older homes on the market.
For instance, 33% of homes built in the 1980s contain four or more bedrooms. For housing stock since 2010, almost 59% had that many.
“Just focusing on supply alone won’t reach those who are struggling most,” Lelaine Bigelow, executive director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, tells Realtor.com®.
“The private sector isn’t meeting the needs for lower-income households, and probably not the middle class, either.”
Coupled with a rental market that is concentrated in large, multifamily buildings with small units, these trends limit the availability of smaller and lower-cost homes, according to the study.
“This reduction in smaller ‘starter’ homes and concentration of large, higher-cost homes among newer housing may limit homeownership opportunities for moderate- and lower-income households,” the report states.
Moderate-, middle-, and high-income renters, meanwhile, occupy an overwhelming 55% of the newest housing stock in the six metros, with the other 45% low or extremely low income.
Compare that to the stock built before 1971, where 37% of occupants are high income, and the rest low or very low.
Just under 4% of newly built owner-occupied units were duplexes, triplexes, and other denser housing types.
Bigelow said market forces alone won’t solve the housing crisis. Public investment in housing and infrastructure is needed, too.
A combination of zoning reform, financial tools, and inclusionary practices to expand housing stock, especially “missing middle” housing more attainable for middle- and low-income buyers, is suggested.
Data shows the data may be shifting
Still, other data show the market might be shifting.
A Realtor.com analysis of nationwide building permit data showed that in 2022, the median new build was 2,128 square feet in size. In 2024, that number fell to 1,965 square feet.
Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner said not to underestimate the “filtering effect,” where people from smaller homes move to larger ones.
The data shows people renting for longer, and the needs for the homes they eventually do buy change as a result.
“I don’t believe that starter homes are going by the wayside, but more of them are being used as single-family rentals, which gives credence to the idea that families may rent either an apartment or single-family home until they have kids and need a larger home,” Berner said.
Realtor.com’s state-by-state housing affordability report card gives Texas an A-, Georgia a B, Arizona a C, and Washington a C-.
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