Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-up

  • A joint study by Enterprise Community Partners and the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Projecting Trends in Severely Cost Burdened Renters: 2015 – 2025 predicted that, in the coming decade, little would change with respect to 1 in 4 renters being severely rent burdened. The researchers examined a number of factors, including: a predicted 10% population increase, declining homeownership rates, and a predicted rise in demand for rental housing.  They also looked at a number of possible scenarios to determine how salary gain and population growth would affect the percentage of severely rent burdened households.  Even the most optimistic of scenarios would only result in a 1.4% decrease.
  • According to analysis by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Existing Home sales fell by 4.8% from July to August despite slowing price growth and a slightly lower interest rate.  On the other hand NAR points out that Existing Home sales are 11% higher than August of last year.
  • The Turner Center for Housing innovation at U.C. Berkley has released analysis entitled Housing Highlights from the 2014 American Community Survey (ACS) which culls the housing related data from the ACS which is released by the Census Bureau and provides statistical trend charts relating to homeownership, cost and vacancy rates.  The Turner Center’s analysis finds, among other things  homeownership continuing to slide it is now at 63.1% following its peak in 2006 when it was at 67.3%. But it also finds that the overall housing cost burden is at its lowest point following the bubble.
  • According to a recent study by Zillow student debt only reduces chances of homeownership for non-graduates.