Recently the Chief Economist of Redfin, Nela Richardson, published an article stating that the US housing industry is in desperate need of a "disruptive" policy shift in order to stay afloat and thrive.

Housing wasn't a large topic in either campaigns in this year's presidential elections, but there are some big challenges looming for the industry as a whole that shouldn't be ignored. One of the major challenges that Richardson mentioned was that the market is undersupplied. This issue was also one of the bigger topics discussed at the recent Housing, Innovation, Vision and Economics (HIVE) Event in September where leaders in the industry gathered to address and discuss solutions. A labor shortage is just one of the many factors in a large framework with a lot of moving parts that will effect the entire economy being that the home improvement industry alone is a one of the largest in the US valued at over $300 billion.

The housing crash nearly a decade ago forced a lot of skilled professionals out of the industry - around 2 million construction workers left according to Abbe Will, an analyst with the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. It's no surprise that today, as home owners start pouring money into renovations, labor shortage is still one of the biggest problems facing industry leaders. It's hard to find skilled tradesmen as many have left the industry, and it's not entirely appealing to the youth to work in construction.

Earlier this year NPR profiled Nathaniel May , a general contractor for home renovations in Boston who said he and his business partner barely survived the crash.

"We were both working out of the back of our truck doing handyman projects to pay the bills.... At that time I was renting a house and I worked out a deal with my landlord to re-shingle about 50 percent of the house in exchange for rent."

Today though, many general contractors are having to turn down projects because they're too busy. Home values have been rising and interest rates are low which makes homeowners much more confident in spending large sums of money on renovation projects. Spending has pushed above where it was at pre-recession. Though, as Richardson wrote in her report, to keep the industry thriving, major changes need to take place.

The Wall Street Journal recently did a report highlighting the scarcity of workers leading to the rise in prefab modular homes constructed in a factory and moved to a site. According to their report, KB Home, one of the largest residential home builders, unveiled a modular home last month "with an energy-efficient kitchen and a rotating audiovisual wall that serves either as a television or video-conferencing system for two adjoining rooms." These types of high tech components are also built in a manufacturing plant and assembled at the home site, requiring much less workers in the field.

Sweden has widely adopted the efficiency of factory built mod homes, and Japan and Germany are beginning to adopt more and more of this type of construction as well. Though, the massive up front costs of factories and technology manufacturing plants have been one of the bigger deterrents for wider adoption in the US.

For now, leaders in the industry are searching for ways to excite the youth about building as well as bring more women into the field. The industry as a whole is in demand for skilled workers and innovative thinkers who can tackle the industry problems in big and small ways. General contractors and homeowners are also in a desperate need for a more efficient and trusted way to connect with one another to get projects off the ground.

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