The National Housing Deficit Stopped Getting Worse in 2024, Holding at 4.7 Million
A construction boom helped hold the deficit nearly flat in 2024, growing by just 43,000 homes, the smallest increase in years
Key findings
- America’s housing deficit reached 4.7 million homes in 2024, rising by just 43,000 — the smallest annual increase since the pandemic began.
- The number of families doubling up (8.2 million) barely rose, while the supply of available homes (3.4 million) held roughly steady.
- Affordability also stopped getting worse: the share of for-sale listings on Zillow affordable to a median-income household each month was flat at about 33% on average in 2024 after falling sharply from roughly 54% in 2021. More recent Zillow data show it improving since 2025.
- Metros with larger housing deficits typically have a lower share of affordable listings on Zillow.
For more than a decade, the United States has not built enough homes, forcing millions of families to share housing with people outside their family. In 2024, that shortfall finally stopped growing in any meaningful way.
The national housing deficit — the number of families doubling up minus the number of homes sitting vacant and available to rent or buy — was about 4.7 million in 2024. That is an increase of just 43,000 homes from 2023, a fraction of the increases seen in recent years.
The deceleration is the real story. The deficit widened by 257,000 homes in 2022 and by 159,000 in 2023. The 2024 increase of 43,000 is small enough that the deficit is best described as roughly unchanged. After years of steady widening, the gap has effectively plateaued.
| Year* | Families doubling up | Homes available to rent or buy | Housing deficit | Annual change |
| 2019 | 7,835,677 | 4,047,268 | 3,788,409 | — |
| 2021 | 7,967,749 | 3,683,823 | 4,283,926 | — |
| 2022 | 8,085,857 | 3,545,084 | 4,540,773 | +256,847 |
| 2023 | 8,147,081 | 3,447,245 | 4,699,836 | +159,063 |
| 2024 | 8,172,802 | 3,429,528 | 4,743,274 | +43,438 |
*2020 is omitted because of data-collection disruptions in that year’s American Community Survey.
Construction came close to keeping up with demand
The reason the deficit held steady is straightforward: homebuilding nearly caught up with the pace of new family formation.
The total number of housing units in the country increased by about 1.4 million in 2024, and that was almost enough to absorb the year’s increase in the number of families moving into new housing. The number of available housing units fell by just 18,000 units, down from 98,000 units the previous year.
It showed up on both sides of the ledger. The number of families doubling up — sharing a home with another family and likely in need of their own home — rose by only about 26,000, to roughly 8.2 million. At the same time, the number of vacant homes available to rent or buy slipped only slightly, to about 3.4 million. When neither side moves much, the gap between them does not move much either.
This does not mean the deficit is solved. A 4.7 million-home deficit is still enormous, and the country is not yet building its way out of the hole dug since the 2008 financial crisis. For the first time in that stretch, new supply and new housing demand were roughly in balance in 2024.
Affordability is no longer worsening either
The leveling off of the deficit lines up with a parallel turn in affordability. The share of for-sale listings on Zillow affordable to a median-income household — meaning they would spend no more than 30% of their income on the monthly mortgage, assuming a 20% down payment — had fallen sharply from a monthly average of roughly 54% in 2021 to 33% in 2023 as home values and then mortgage rates surged. In 2024, that share held flat, and Zillow data show it improving since 2025. In addition, metros with larger housing deficits tend to have a lower share of affordable listings.
That mirrors what Zillow found looking at would-be buyers directly: the share of homebuying-age renters who could afford the typical home in their market stopped falling in 2024, holding near 20% after a steep two-year slide. In both views, the worst of the housing affordability shock appears to be behind us — even if conditions remain far from normal, with the typical U.S. home still worth roughly 50% more than in 2019.
For families doubling up today, that stabilization matters. While some may share a home with an unrelated group by choice, others likely share a home because they cannot yet afford a place of their own. When affordability stops deteriorating, the pressure pushing families to double up stops intensifying as well.
Expensive metros have large housing deficits
Even with the national picture stabilizing, the deficit remains heavily concentrated in the country’s most expensive markets. Measured by the number of families doubling up for every home available to rent or buy, the most severe deficits among major metros in 2024 were:
Most severe housing deficits in 2024
| Metro | Total available housing units | Families doubling up in shared housing | Families doubling up per available home |
| Boston | 34,589 | 181,617 | 5.3 |
| San Diego | 26,074 | 123,539 | 4.7 |
| Salt Lake City | 11,286 | 46,962 | 4.2 |
| Portland | 21,848 | 89,044 | 4.1 |
| Los Angeles | 114,081 | 458,614 | 4.0 |
Boston again has the most severe deficits among the country’s major metros, with more than five families doubling up for every home available to rent or buy. Two of the five worst markets are in California, unchanged from 2023. The list otherwise shifted at the margins: Los Angeles moved into the top five, while Sacramento dropped out of it.
As measured by the sheer size of the housing deficit — which is biased toward larger markets — the most severe deficits in 2024 were in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
After years of relentless widening, the U.S. housing deficit barely moved in 2024 — growing just 43,000 homes to hold near 4.7 million. A strong run of homebuilding during the pandemic finally came close to matching new demand, price and rent growth moderated causing affordability to stop deteriorating. The deficit is still large but for the first time in years, the problem stopped getting worse.
How we measure the housing deficit
The housing deficit is the number of families doubling up minus the number of homes vacant and available to rent or buy. A family is counted as doubling up when it shares a housing unit with another family (a secondary family unit in someone else’s household), using U.S. Census American Community Survey microdata (via IPUMS) for 2019 and 2021–2024; 2020 is excluded. Available homes are vacant units classified by the Census as for rent or for sale. The affordability measure is Zillow’s count of for-sale listings affordable to a median-income household (20% down payment) as a share of all for-sale listings, averaged across each year and weighted by inventory. The analysis covers the United States and its metropolitan areas; U.S. territories and military areas are excluded.
