In June 2025, the U.S. housing market saw a 12% year-over-year increase in the number of homes for sale, reaching 2,057,937. However, the number of newly listed homes decreased by 3.2% compared to last year. While inventory is up nationally, it still remains below pre-pandemic levels.
Although inventory is up, high prices and rates bordering the 7% mark are factors shutting many out of the housing space. Proposals have varied as to finding equitable and affordable housing solutions, including the use of federal land to build new housing.
A new report from Realtor.com has found that while proposals to unlock federal land for housing development may offer localized relief, they fall short of delivering a national solution to the nation’s housing crisis.
The report found it would take 10 million acres of land to build four million homes, and the geography of federal holdings limits their utility in addressing the areas most in need.
“The U.S. faces an estimated shortage of 3.8 million homes, which is a shortfall that has built up over more than a decade and continues to push home prices out of reach for many Americans,” said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “Opening up federal land for housing development may generate incremental supply in parts of the West, but it’s not a silver bullet. The most severe shortages exist in places like the Northeast, where developable federal land is virtually nonexistent. As a result, we’ve also got to make better use of the land we already have. That will require meaningful changes to zoning and land use policies to alleviate the housing affordability crisis, especially in high-demand markets.”
Western Lands Could Alleviate the Housing Shortage
Roughly 640 million acres of land are federally owned—nearly one-quarter of the U.S. landmass. However, the bulk of it is located in Alaska and the Western U.S., managed by agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). While states like Nevada, Arizona, and Montana contain significant federal holdings, many of these areas either already have sufficient housing supply or lack the infrastructure, jobs and population density to support major new developments.
By contrast, densely populated metros in the Northeast—where the housing shortage is most acute—have little or no federal land available. For instance, the Northeastern U.S. alone faces a deficit of 830,000 homes as of 2024, according to Realtor.com estimates, yet contains negligible BLM-managed land. Affordable housing in lower-cost regions could have the potential for long-term population shifts, but such migration would require major transformations in the labor market, especially increased support for remote work and new economic hubs.
Density Matters
If BLM land parcels were made available, the number of homes that could be built would vary dramatically depending on development density. For example, at the density of Manhattan (61 units per acre), 90 acres of land could yield more than 5,000 homes, yet at the current average density in Las Vegas’ Clark County (one unit per five acres), those same 90 acres would produce only about 20 homes.
To build 3.8 million homes at densities representing where the middle half of the population lives, the U.S. would need to develop 4–31 million acres of land—an enormous range depending on how compact the development is. Building at a density matching the median county–where half of Americans live in a more dense area and half in a less dense area–would require nearly 10 million acres.
Potential Housing Units by Density
Seeking Solutions
While selling small, well-located federal parcels—as seen in recent BLM auctions in Las Vegas—is a step in the right direction and may help individual markets, broader progress requires a more comprehensive toolkit.
“While freeing up federal lands for housing is one of many solutions on the table, addressing the housing crisis at scale requires aligning supply with where demand actually is,” added Hale. “That means advancing local reforms, such as easing zoning restrictions, encouraging missing-middle housing, and investing in infrastructure and transit, to unlock land that’s already close to jobs, schools and amenities.”
Congressional Responses to a Greater Issue
The House Natural Resources Committee recently passed its directives for a Budget Reconciliation Bill, which includes $18.5 billion in savings. In addition, Reps. Mark Amodei and Celeste Maloy have introduced the Land Disposal Amendment as part of the Committee’s markup. The provision pertains to the disposal of federal lands in Nevada and Utah.
Reconciliation is a process that allows the President’s agenda to move forward without being blocked by a Senate filibuster. It began with both the House and Senate passing an identical budget blueprint that provided clear directives for committees to identify areas for saving and investment. Congressional committees have been working to turn those directives into actionable legislation within their respective districts. All proposed legislation must meet deficit-reducing or revenue-related targets. The end goal is to compile all legislation passed through committees and bring it onto the chamber floors for voting in one big bill.
The Land Disposal Amendment next heads the U.S. House of Representatives for a full vote.
The aim of the Land Disposal Amendment is to reduce federal control of vast public areas, including large plots of land in Utah and Nevada, where federal holdings dominate the landscape. In addition, the measure seeks to also increase the production of fossil fuels. A portion of the land earmarked for sale is centered on the construction of affordable housing on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management on large plots of land outside Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, as well as the southwestern Utah region.
Specific provisions of the Land Disposal Amendment include:
- Reinstating quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales (projected to generate $12 billion in revenue).
- Mandating at least 30 lease sales in the Gulf of America over the next 15 years and six in the Cook Inlet (projected to generate billions of dollars in new revenue).
- Returning to reasonable oil and natural gas royalty rates.
- Requiring geothermal lease sales (projected to generate $23 million in new revenue).
- Resuming leasing for energy production in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (projected to generate $1 billion in new revenue and savings).
- Resuming coal leasing on federal lands.
- Increasing timber sales on federal lands and requiring long-term timber contracts.
- Rescinding various wasteful slush funds established under the Biden administration in agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.
- Investing in water infrastructure in the West.
- Providing funding to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, including by establishing the National Garden of American Heroes.
Click here for more on Realtor.com’s report on federally owned land and the nation’s housing inventory.
