Unsustainable US construction demand is impeding housing market success

The AI boom over the last few years has created a new class of exceedingly wealthy technology innovators, investors and employees. Compounded with a bullish stock market and IPOs like SpaceX sending employees into affluence within days, it comes as no surprise there’s increasing demand for complex, luxury homes. U.S. luxury home prices have risen about 5%. Meanwhile, the rest of the housing market is stalling for the average buyer, with a 4 million housing supply deficit. This reveals a struggle for new builds between a growingly wealthy group of home buyers and your average purchaser, as standard multi- and single-family homes rapidly become out of reach. The competition for workers and adequate supplies to build new homes isn’t just coming from housing demands alone. AI data center construction is drawing from the same finite pool of skilled labor and basic but vital materials like steel, iron and lumber. Can the U.S. construction industry simultaneously support standard and luxury housing along with data center expansion? Not the way it’s operating today. Manual estimating and legacy software were not built for this level of complexity, and the cracks in the foundation are alrea...