Outlook Stories | Housing Affairs Letter

Study: Housing Market Strengthens

America’s housing market has regained enough momentum to provide a growth engine for the U.S. economy, the latest Harvard study on the State of the Nation’s Housing 2016 shows.

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Market Confusion Continues Unabated

This week, cautious optimism greets market statistics, with mortgage applications up and builder confidence surging again (see Housing Market Notes in this issue). But the enduring outlook is one of pessimism until lawmakers finally tackle housing finance reform with the tenacity required to help shift the

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Baby Boom Housing Outlook Bleak

The study compiled by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (HJCHS) and the AARP Foundation shows the number of adults aged 50 and above is expected to explode to 132 million by 2030, a 70% jump from 2000.

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‘Resilient’ Homes Target Gulf Coast

Resilience Star Home Pilot Project is the brainchild of the Department of Homeland Security to provide a federal government backstop label for “resilient” homes and buildings. The project is intended to provide lenders with a specific designation for environmentally efficient homes.

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Fed Worries Over Housing Slump

Continued flattening out of housing activity is the major domestic worry of the Federal Reserve Board as it ponders how long to continue its support of keeping benchmark overnight interest rates near zero. Housing makes up about 20% of the gross domestic product.

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Family Double-Up Triples In Six Years

Data collected in the American Housing Survey (AHS) from 2003 to 2009 shows the number of households composed of multiple subfamilies tripled from 199,000 to 622,000. The number of households containing a relative other than a spouse or a child under 18 increased by 1.6 million during the same period

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Programs Begin Constriction Planning

With the government shutdown behind them and partial FY 2014 funding guaranteed until Jan. 15, housing programs, public housing authorities, and other housing activities affected by federal funding regroup to determine how much they will have to cut from their FY 2014 spending commitments to met a likely cut of up to 7% to satisfy sequestration

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Short Shutdown Window For HUD

If the federal government shutdown continues, HUD will be able to function on a limited basis only through October, its shutdown contingency plan shows. When the shutdown reached its third day without any semblance of a solution and both sides remaining rigid, it became apparent the shutdown could drag on indefinitely.

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Home Prices Continue Upward

Home prices continue to rise but at a slower pace than in recent months, says housing market analyst CoreLogic. Home sale prices are up 1.9% from May and 11.9% year-over-year from May 2012.

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Housing Propping Up Economy

A re-emerging housing market moves back into its traditional role as a main economic indicator despite an overall sluggish economy and a persistently high unemployment rate, Federal Reserve policymakers note as they reaffirm continuation of the central bank’s monthly $85 billion housing stimulus. The Fed purchases the Treasury notes to keep

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