First, Harrisonburg is a popular place to live.  Beyond everyone who is living here now, we continue to see new folks planning to make Harrisonburg their home, including but not limited to...

So, lots of people want to make Harrisonburg their home.

Second, I think that more people are moving to Harrisonburg than new housing units are being built.  If over a five year period, 5000 new people decided to make Harrisonburg their home, we wouldn't see a change in availability of housing if we also saw 5000 new housing units built.  I think that the amount of new moving to (or attempting to move to) Harriosnburg over the past 5 to 10 years has exceeded the number of new housing units built during that same timeframe.

Third, I think there is an imperfect match between what home buyers want to buy and new housing units that are being built.  First of all, plenty of the new housing units that have been built over the past ten years have been rentals - apartments or otherwise - which hasn't helped provide housing for would be home buyers at all.  Furthermore, the "for sale" housing that is being built in this area certainly meets the needs of some buyers, but probably not most or all buyers.  If you're hoping to buy a home that is within the location, size parameters and price parameters of one of our area's new home communities -- great, you'll be in good shape!  If what you are hoping to buy is not the type / size / price of new homes being built in our area, then the new housing units being built don't help you out at all.

As such... the popularity of Harrisonburg and the rate at which new housing units are being built, and the type of housing units being built all contribute to a shortage of housing inventory for many price ranges and property types.