U.S. Bureau of the Census and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Housing Starts: Total: New Privately Owned Housing Units Started [HOUST], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; February 6, 2018.
If one recalls, the financial sector declared they recovered less than a year after the Great Recession of 2008, but, the actual economic return to the average American never arrived. The unemployment rate does not prove there is an end to the recession of the American people. The ONLY thing the unemployment rate reflects is a far less paid labor market that finds it necessary to work more than one job to sustain their families.
Other than Seattle, Washington where the minimum wage reaches to $15 per hour, the purchasing of homes is anemic. One place the Democrats can investigate with guaranteed worries, "Who is actually purchasing USA land that drive prices in areas where the middle class if failing?"
Unions have never been more important. They need to dig in and cause Wall Street a great deal of stress. The ONLY way the USA is going to fully recover from the 2008 Great Recession is for Unions to demand greater wages and increase Middle Class wealth to purchase homes and afford mortgages.
The idea housing is expensive because there is a housing shortage is an odd reality, whereby the DEMAND is not there because Americans can't afford to purchase a home. First Time Homeowners are not coming to the surface. Americans continue to lack financial equity and they are ageing every day.
January 30, 2018
Washington — U.S. home prices rose sharply in November, (click here) with Seattle once again leading the way with the nation's steepest price increase.
A shortage of homes on the market is fueling the rapid rise in housing costs, experts say.
Standard & Poor's said Tuesday that its S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national average home price index increased 6.2 percent in November from a year earlier after climbing 6.1 percent in October.
Seattle saw a 12.7 percent price increase, followed by Las Vegas at 10.6 percent and San Francisco at 9.1 percent. Washington, D.C., prices rose just 3.3 percent, lowest among the 20 metropolitan areas measured.
The national housing index has registered annual gains of 5 percent or more for 16 months, and Seattle has seen the steepest increases for most of that period....
USA home sales are tumbling, but, Ryan receives record half a billion for 2018 elections for the policies the Republicans are passing. There is something very wrong with this picture. The people's government is no longer benefitting them.
January 24, 2018
By Josh Boak
Washington — U.S. home sales slid 3.6 percent in December, (click here) as rising prices and a declining number of available properties stifled purchases.
The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that sales of existing homes fell last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units. Despite the monthly setback, sales totaled 5.51 million in 2017. That was the highest level since 2006, yet it marked a slight 1.1 percent gain from 2016 as the months’ supply of properties on the market fell to the lowest level ever recorded by the Realtors.
The housing slump is more than fear of 2008, it is about the working poor and abandoned generation of "Occupy Wall Street." At the very least Democratic lawmakers should be trying AirBNB to find the story behind the people renting their homes. It is an eye-opener. They are good people; that is not the issue; but, if they are the Millenials there are multiple incomes into the household to achieve the American Dream.
The strengthening U.S. economy helped to lift home sales last year, but homeowners are choosing not to list their properties despite the rising prices and relatively low mortgage rates. The lack of homes for sale speaks to the lingering aftershocks from the 2007 housing crisis....
The American Dream is dying or already DOA. In addition to the stagnation of housing sales are our senior citizens using reverse mortgages to make ends meet. These homes are not available for sales. There are a lot of interesting financial tools within the housing market and it is hurting the American people.
...Just 1.48 million homes were listed for sale at the end of December, a 10.3 percent drop over the past year. There were just 3.2 months’ supply of homes on the market, the lowest level since the Realtors began tracking the figure in 1999....
