This week, Robert Dietz, the chief economist and senior vice president of economics and housing policy at the National Association of Home Builders, joins the Housing News Podcast to discuss how the nation’s homebuilders have fared during the COVID-19 pandemic.In this episode, Dietz discusses how a national shortage of housing inventory and rising lumber prices have contributed to an increase in construction costs, which is making it much harder for builders to introduce affordable supply to the housing market.The Housing News Podcast is a weekly wrap of the top news stories by HousingWire Editor-in-Chief Sarah Wheeler. Each week, HousingWire interviews financial services experts who can help make sense of the latest headlines, sponsored by our partners at Freddie Mac.