US housing 1.2m homes shortfall puts timber in the spotlight

The US housing market, measured by retail sales the largest in the world, is wrestling with a structural deficit that has become increasingly difficult to ignore. Industry estimates point to a shortage of more than 1.2m homes — a gap that has widened over years of underbuilding and is now feeding into affordability pressures across metropolitan America. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has warned that the imbalance between supply and demand may take years, if not decades, to resolve. Yet recent projections from its Housing Watch suggest the deficit could begin to narrow between 2026 and 2030 ...