Material shortages hit housing completions

Shortages of materials and labour over the past year have not stopped builders from starting a lot more single-family homes. But they do appear to have prevented them from finishing them. That implies a surge of homes will be completed later this year as builders get hold of the last items needed to finish a property. With many of those homes already sold, we doubt that will boost the inventory of completed new homes. But it will allow the owners of those new homes to put their existing property up for sale, and that should finally help the existing home inventory to rise gradually later next year.