Housing Healthy Enough to Start Driving Economy

Harvard JCHS: Still, market is hampered by tight credit, sluggish income growth and the inventory shortage.

The national housing market has now regained enough momentum to provide an engine of growth for the US economy, according to the latest The State of the Nation’s Housing report released by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Robust rental demand continues to drive the housing expansion, and sales, prices, and new construction of single-family homes are on the rise. Even more important, income growth has picked up, particularly among the huge millennial population that is poised to form millions of new households over the coming decade. At the same time, however, several obstacles continue to hamper the housing recovery—in particular, the lingering pressures on home ownership, the eroding affordability of rental housing, and the growing concentration of poverty.