The market for new homes has been cooling since late spring/early summer, and that has led to a slowdown in new home construction.

“In fact, 2022 will be the first year where single-family home building has posted a decline since 2011,” said Robert Dietz at the National Association of Home Builders, adding that when you combine higher home prices and higher mortgage rates, “with at least a 35% increase in construction costs – you really do have a housing affordability crisis.”

In the short term, Ali Wolf at the housing data and consultancy firm Zonda said for people who are still looking to buy a home soon, “they may actually find that there are some good deals on the market right now.”

But longer term, she said, “when we see more economic certainty and … when we see mortgage rates come back down, we may find that we’re back in an environment where there’s more demand than there is supply.”

And we all know what that does to prices.