The U.S. Housing Market: Has it recovered?
July 2016
Nearly nine years later, the housing U.S. housing market is finally making its comeback. As a bright spot for the U.S economy, the housing market has led to increased employment, investment and overall economic growth. Although some areas such as sales of existing homes have been on a rapid rise other aspects of the housing market has yet to catch up to historical norms.
While May saw the highest level of sales for existing homes in the past nine years, the sales of new single-family houses decreased 6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 551,000. Investment in private, residential construction has also been below historical norms while private spending on multi-family housing has surpassed pre-bubble era.
Another drastic change to the housing market seen over the past 15 years has been the overall size of homes. New single-family houses are now increasingly larger because builders have been focusing on larger homes with more amenities. About 31% of new constructed houses are over 3,000 square feet in 2015 compared to only 17% in 1999.
The U.S Housing market has made a slow recovery but it is not done yet. Signs are pointing to continued growth within the housing market at demand for housing increases as unemployment decreases and wages increase.