According to a new Zillow report, U.S. home sales grew by 5.9% since last year, with a total of 381,125 homes sold in June. However, the price of sold homes and the cost of rent continue to rise, illustrating what many have dubbed a housing affordability crisis.

Housing Market Trends

Orphe Divounguy, senior economist on Zillow’s Economic Research team, cautioned against making rosy assumptions based on a single monthly report. He instead highlighted longer-term trends, which show that home sales are still nearly flat compared to last year.

Divounguy noted that the reason home sales still haven’t rebounded is largely due to lower inventory: the total number of homes for sale in 2026 is about 19% below pre-pandemic levels. He also stated that affordability has slightly improved from a year ago due to a variety of factors, including the fact that mortgage payments are down by about 2.5%.

The Zillow report also showed renters are not exempt from rising prices in 2026. Though rent growth has slowed since 2022, the typical rent nationwide is now $1,965, which is approximately 2.2% higher than last year and 32.5% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Solutions to the Housing Crisis

Divounguy contended that one of the best ways to address the housing crisis is by updating land use restrictions and regulations that prevent new construction. He suggested that revisiting land use restrictions, such as minimum parking requirements, building height requirements, and minimum lot size, could help lower the costs for builders and allow them to adjust to changing market conditions.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.