From NPR.

The cost of buying land in the U.S. has gone up more than 75%, on average, since before the pandemic — a rate that’s significantly faster than inflation and that experts say is likely to make the country’s housing shortage even worse.

Not only is land more expensive, there’s a lot less of it to buy, according to a new report from Realtor.com — both houses and land got snatched up in a pandemic era buying frenzy.

Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com, says that, as for the consequences of less, more expensive land, "What that means is that homes are going to continue to be expensive. That new construction is going to continue to be challenged."

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