An Overview of America’s Housing
Industry
The United
States housing industry has experienced many
changes over the years, many of which have been positive, driving the growth
behind current housing market. Despite some past and present negative economic
indicators, such as periods of high unemployment and poor interest rates, both
data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
and Producer Price Index (PPI) have proven that there has been strong economic
growth within the housing industry, contributing to the over all Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). The continued steady growth of our nations housing
industry has producers increasing housing starts and consumers purchasing and
refinancing despite fluctuating interest rates.
A Brief History
Between the years 2000 and 2005 a great deal of the
statistics for the housing industry did not indicate large fluctuations.
Statistics that did show large a influx were the
number of families and the number of households, of which each grew by about a
million families each year. The more prominent fluctuation that occurred in the
housing industry is the value of new homes for producers and consumers. In
2000, the value of new homes averaged about 83 billion dollars; by 2005, the
value of new homes was averaging approximate 1 trillion dollars. A great deal
of that is connected to the average number of new home sales rising by 500,000 in that time.
Statistics that did not change were the percent of one person households and
the average number of people living in a home. Approximately 26% of the houses
during this time were one person households and the average number of people
living under one roof stayed very constant at approximately 2.5 (U.S. Census
Bureau, 2007).
