Investing: Housing will recover, eventually

The average U.S. home is now 42 years old, and the share built in the past decade has fallen from 18% in 2014 to 13% today—signaling a long-running housing supply gap. The article points to strict state and local zoning rules, plus today’s higher transaction and construction costs: selling a home to buy another often means swapping a low-rate mortgage for a loan above 7%, while tariffs on materials like lumber and labor shortages also push up building expenses. Real home prices have fallen for 13 straight months. Homebuilder stocks have lagged, but Berkshire Hathaway—under Greg Abel—has been buying Lennar, and Berkshire’s 2025-2026 purchases are framed as a long-horizon bet.