Housing Growth Seen Continuing; Missing 'Bubble' Gets Credit For Mildness of Recession
A Harvard University study to be released today projects continued healthy growth in the national housing market, prompting economists to insist there is no bubble in residential real estate.</br></br>The report also underscored the opinion, widely held among economists, that housing was a major reason the recent economic recession was so mild. Last year marked the first time in at least a century that housing remained healthy in an economic downturn, according to Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, which will issue the report.</br></br>Economists credit a sharp imbalance in supply and demand as the main reason for the market's remarkable resilience, on top of historically low interest rates.</br></br>"The housing sector is poised to set new records for production, sales and aggregate home equity in the years ahead," said the Joint Center's annual State of the Nation's Housing report. The report predicts that strong growth in immigrant and minority households will result in 22 million more homeowners in the next 20 years.</br></br>Last year, existing home sales reached a record 5.3 million and the value of single-family home construction rose to a record $206 billion, the report noted. Price appreciation pushed the aggregate value of U.S. homes to a record high of $12 trillion and home equity to a record $6.7 trillion.