Several hundred real estate advocates and industry practitioners convened in Washington, D.C., this week to strategize on the industry’s most pressing policy challenge—how to ensure an adequate supply of housing for the nation’s 129 million households. With an estimated shortage of 5 million homes across the country, many view supply increases as a key factor in solving the housing affordability crisis.
The gathering—the second annual National Housing Supply Summit—took place at the National Housing Center in Washington, D.C., March 18. The event, sponsored by the National Association of REALTORS® and over a dozen other housing-related organizations, is a joint initiative of the Housing Innovation Alliance and HousingTech, organizations dedicated to advancing innovative ideas in housing.
NAR 2026 Vice President of Advocacy Asa Fleming represented NAR on a panel that looked at several playbooks for increasing housing supply. Among them: the Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook, which NAR supported along with the National League of Cities, the American Planning Association and the National Association of Home Builders. The playbook provides a menu of options that state and local governments can implement to increase housing supply in their communities.
Fleming, a Raleigh, N.C., broker who served as 2019 president of NC REALTORS®, knows the issue well having served on local planning commissions and boards. When asked for one solution that would be most impactful, Fleming pointed to pattern books (essentially community planning guides) and preapproved plans as a way to speed up the permitting process.
“If a community approves a design, we shouldn’t get bogged down reviewing every plan. This approach saves time and gets more homes built,” he said.
The panel, titled “Tackling the Bottlenecks of Zoning, Permitting, & Codes: State & Local Playbooks for Action,” also included speakers from the American Enterprise Institute, Ivory Innovations and the National Housing Crisis Taskforce.
Panelists agreed that action at the state and local level offers flexibility for public-private partnerships and implementing building practices that are tailored to local communities.
This locally focused approach is garnering national attention. The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act recently passed in the U.S. Senate. The current iteration of the bill includes provisions to promote infill projects, grant funding for communities to implement pattern books and a pilot program to convert vacant commercial buildings into housing.
“Our participation in and sponsorship of the National Housing Supply Summit is an example of how NAR’s advocacy operation builds bridges between federal thought leaders and local movers and shakers as they work to increase housing supply and support the American dream of home ownership,” says NAR Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn.
