Lack of New Construction Will Make Housing Crunch Even Crunchier

(RECAP: The housing crunch, which has been driving up prices for the few houses on the market and leaving a whole lot of wannabe homeowners outbid and frustrated, is expected to get even worse this year. That’s according to the latest report on new construction in the U.S. Builders applied for fewer permits to construct new homes in July—which is a pretty good indication that fewer residences will go up in the coming months. The 95,800 permits represented a 7.2% drop from a year ago and was down 16.3% from June, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s monthly new residential construction report. It isn’t just single-family homes that aren’t going up. Despite the dearth of affordable rentals on the market, the number of permits to put up multi-family dwellings (i.e. rentals, condos and co-ops), tumbled 6.9% from last year and 12.7% from June, according to the report.)