July - September 2013
Housing Markets
The housing market continues to marginally improve - although in the past months there have been some "hiccups" in certain subsectors. Reviewing current data, several sectors appear to be stagnating and in these same sectors, the data is less than 50 percent of their respective longrun averages. Once again, the near-term outlook on the U.S. housing market remains unchanged - there are potentially several negative macro-factors or headwinds at this point in time for a robust housing recovery based on historical long-term averages.
Why?
1) Government debt
2) European recession, China slow- down
3) Weak domestic demand
4) A lack of well-paying jobs,
5) A sluggish economy
6) Declining real median annual household incomes,
7) Strict home loan lending standards, and
8) New banking regulations.