The housing crisis outlined in Ezra Klein’s article, “America’s Housing Crisis, in One Chart,” is no longer an abstract issue; it has become deeply personal for millions of Americans. Home prices have surged more than 50 percent since the pandemic, first-time buyers are older than ever, and a growing share of households are spending unsustainable portions of their income just to stay housed. At its core, the problem is painfully simple: we have spent decades building too few homes, and we continue to fall behind. Even as leaders across administrations acknowledge the shortage, the pace of construction today is lower than it was generations ago, leaving demand to wildly outstrip supply.

‍

What makes Klein’s article especially important is that it goes beyond diagnosing the problem and starts questioning how we build. The piece highlights a reality many industries have already confronted: productivity in construction has stagnated while nearly every other sector has modernized. Housing is still largely built the same way it was a century ago, despite enormous advances in manufacturing, technology, and logistics. That imbalance helps explain why homes are so expensive, why affordable housing is often the most costly to build, and why policy solutions alone struggle to keep up with the scale of the crisis.

‍

This is exactly where Vessel’s core beliefs come into focus. Vessel was built on the idea that solving the housing crisis requires rethinking the entire system not just where we build, but how. By embracing off-site, factory-based construction, Vessel is already delivering housing at a greater speed and efficiency, while minimizing waste. Modern construction methods make it possible to improve quality while lowering costs, shorten timelines that currently stretch into years, and create homes that are more sustainable and resilient by design. These aren’t incremental improvements; they are structural changes to an industry that has resisted change for too long.

‍

Sharing this article matters because it helps shift the conversation from scarcity to solutions. It reinforces that building more housing isn’t enough if we don’t also build smarter. This article makes clear that the moment for that shift isn’t coming someday; it’s already here. Vessel sees this moment as a turning point and is acting now to revolutionize how housing is built, delivering solutions with the scale, speed, and efficiency the housing crisis demands. If you’re interested in reading the full article, the link is provided below.

Opinion | America’s Housing Crisis, in One Chart - The New York Times