US Housing: Boom or Bust or Somewhere in Between?

Market Recovery

PREVIEW

Last year, as pandemic-led economic impacts began to be felt, many worried the US housing market was vulnerable to a slowdown. We believed that the housing sector would prove to be resilient as the strength of household balance sheets and accommodative monetary policy would support the market through the economic downturn.

 

Fast forward one year and the sector remains remarkably strong, with surging demand and limited supply driving housing price appreciation (HPA) of 13.3% year-over-year (y/y), as of March 2021.1 Past housing boom and bust cycles and the recent white-hot nature of real estate markets nationwide have some weary about the future of the sector. While headwinds exist, we believe underlying fundamentals are supportive of continued strength in the sector and positive HPA.

 

This paper discusses the factors that drove the strength in the housing market and led to strong HPA over the last year and our outlook for the sector going forward.

ENDNOTES

  1. Source: S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Home Price Seasonally Adjusted Index (y/y %).

 

 

 

WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

 

All investments involve risks, including possible loss of principal. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and investors may not get back the full amount invested. Stock prices fluctuate, sometimes rapidly and dramatically, due to factors affecting individual companies, particular industries or sectors, or general market conditions. Bond prices generally move in the opposite direction of interest rates. Thus, as prices of bonds in an investment portfolio adjust to a rise in interest rates, the value of the portfolio may decline. Actively managed strategies could experience losses if the investment manager’s judgment about markets, interest rates or the attractiveness, relative values, liquidity or potential appreciation of particular investments made for a portfolio, proves to be incorrect. There can be no guarantee that an investment manager’s investment techniques or decisions will produce the desired results.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *