Adults across all age groups favor policies that enable more housing to be built as the nation grapples with a persistent shortage of units, a new poll shows.
Respondents were most in favor of simpler and faster permitting; converting commercial buildings to housing; and building apartments near transit and job centers, according to the survey by AARP and The Pew Charitable Trusts.
When it comes to accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, respondents 65 years and older are less enthusiastic than their younger counterparts. That indicates that housing officials may want to consider more outreach on the benefits of apartments over garages or in backyards, according to Pew.
A report this year by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University noted that more municipalities are open to ADUs.
Relaxed housing policies and acceptance of development would help the country put a dent in a long-term shortage of units, homebuilders and analysts say.
The U.S. needs to build about 1.5 million for-sale homes and rentals each year, but the nation has fallen well short of that number for the past decade or longer, PulteGroup CEO Ryan Marshall said in a webcast last fall.
"We are a not-in-my-backyard population, and so everybody loves the idea of growing the economy, growing more jobs, until it relates to putting new development next door to you or across the street from where you currently live," Marshall said. "And then all of a sudden, we become anti-growth. Until we figure out how to solve that as a country, we're going to continually and perpetually have a chronic undersupply of housing."
