s the demand side. the supply side has been pushing in the same direction — towards tighter housing markets and more expensive shelter. u. s. housing supply has probably been more constrained lately than at any time since the end of world war ii. one estimate is that the current growth in the supply of new housing units is about 100, 000 less per year that would be needed to support trend increases in demand from household formation and replacement of depreciating units. 7 supply adjusts to changes in the economy more slowly than demand because of the time it takes to plan and build. with workers at home and supply bottlenecks, there were pandemic - related drops in the production and importation of many construction materials. these supply shortages contributed to skyrocketing input prices. in january 2022, lumber prices included in the producer price index were 92 percent higher than the 2019 average. even with increased materials costs, suppliers have been unable to keep up with demand. the volume of lumber now being sold is more than 150 percent higher than last august and is similarly larger than the average volume over the previous ten years. 8 labor is also a key input in home construction. the supply of construction labor, like other sectors, has been held down by pandemic - specific issues like early retirement. one measure of labor market tightness for the construction industry increased steadily from 2010 to 2019 and then in 2021 was more than double the level recorded during the construction boom of the mid - 2000s. 9 jim parrott and mark zandi, “ overcoming the nation ’ s daunting housing supply shortage, ” https : / / www. urban. org / research / publication / overcoming - nations - daunting - housing - supply - shortage see trading economics ( 2022 ), “ lumber, ” webpage, https : / / tradingeconomics. com / commodity / lumber. this measure of labor market tightness is the job openings rate divided by the unemployment rate. - 9local land use regulations have also played a role in constraining housing supply over the past several decades. probably not by accident, these regulations have tended to be more restrictive in areas with high housing demand. there has been a growing public debate about these restrictions on local home building, not just at the local level, but among governors and state legislatures. while some local regulations have been changed to allow more housing construction in high demand areas, the effects will take time, and it remains to be seen whether

a range of measures addressed to smaller banks, with particular attention to better capturing and reflecting the characteristics of the community bank business model. these include elements of last year ’ s legislation, and other steps we have taken in the same spirit, intended to help community banking organizations survive and thrive : • we adjusted the scope of our supervisory assessments, our stress - testing requirements, our appraisal regulations, and the volcker rule — all aimed at the activities of large, complex institutions, not small local banks. 7 board of governors of the federal reserve system, “ federal reserve board finalizes rules that tailor its regulations for domestic and foreign banks to more closely match their risk profiles, ” news release, october 10, 2019, https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / pressreleases / bcreg20191010a. htm. board of governors of the federal reserve system, federal deposit insurance corporation, and office of the comptroller of the currency, “ agencies issue final rule to exempt residential real estate transactions of $ 400, 000 or less from appraisal requirements, ” news release, september 27, 2019, https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / pressreleases / bcreg20190927a. htm ; board of governors of the federal reserve system, commodity futures trading commission, federal deposit insurance corporation, office of the comptroller of the currency, and securities and exchange commission, “ agencies finalize changes to simplify volcker rule, ” news release, october 8, 2019, https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / pressreleases / bcreg20191008a. htm ; board of governors of the federal reserve system, “ federal reserve board finalizes rules that tailor its regulations for domestic and foreign banks to more closely match their risk profiles, ” news release, october 10, 2019, https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / pressreleases / bcreg20191010a. htm ; board of governors of the federal reserve system, “ federal reserve board invites public comment on proposal that would modify company - run stress testing requirements to conform with economic growth, regulatory relief, and consumer protection act, ” news release, january 8, 2019, https : / / www. federalreserve. gov /