The Truth Behind Housing Data

National home sales are falling, and according to Zillow Chief Economist Svenja Gudell, the housing industry needs to stop sugarcoating the truth behind the data: the U.S. is severely under producing housing.

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According to Gudell’s reaction to August new home sales, which fell 560,000 (SAAR), down 3.4 percent from July and 1.2 percent from 2016, housing inventory is stuck at roughly mid-1990s levels despite the fact that the country has grown by more than 60 million people since that decade.

Though buying conditions are great in theory, considering jobs and incomes are increasing, and interest rates are keeping financing costs low, Gudell said a lack of homes available to buy at a reasonable price point is missing…

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Housing Recovery Has Been Slight and Erratic

For all the talk of post-recession recovery, rising prices, and a brisk sellers’ market, barely a third of homes in the U.S. have values surpassing their pre-crash peaks. But even that recovery is far from even, according to a report released by Trulia Wednesday morning.

Trulia’s chief economist, Ralph McLaughlin, wrote that only 34.2 percent of homes nationally have seen their values surpass 2006 numbers. But that percentage belies wildly uneven pockets of recovery. Of large U.S. metros, some, such as Denver, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Dallas, have seen more than 90 percent of homes recover fully and surpass 2006 peaks. But then there are metros like Las Vegas and Tucson,  where fewer than 3 percent of homes have passed pre-recession numbers.

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Rising Consumer Expectations Could Bode Well for Housing

Encouraging news about consumer earnings could lead to more home sales in an already healthy growth market, even if the labor market is less certain.

On Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York(New York Fed) released its latest Survey of Consumer Expectations, which showed that consumers’ earnings and income growth expectations rebounded while medium-term inflation expectations rose in June. Median expected household income growth rebounded from May’s sudden decline, increasing from 2.4 percent to 2.8 percent, the survey reported. Barring the blip in May, income growth expectations have been trending upward since January.

Likewise, median household spending growth expectations remained steady, at around 3.6 percent, as did perceptions of credit…

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Freddie Mac Forecasts Best Housing Year in a Decade

The recent predictions from analysts of a dark year for housing based on tight inventory combined with rapid home price appreciation and slow wage growth may be a little off base, according to Freddie Mac’s March 2016 Monthly Outlook released Thursday.

Freddie Mac is predicting that housing fundamentals such as home sales, housing starts, and prices will all reach levels not seen since 2006, right in the middle of the housing bubble and two years before the crash.

“Housing markets are poised for their best year in a decade,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sean Becketti said. “In our latest forecast, total home sales, housing starts, and house prices will reach their highest levels since 2006. Low mortgage rates, robust job growth and a gradual increase…

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