Trulia: Strong Jobs Report Bodes Well for Housing Market

• March 12th 2012

by Shilpi Paul

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Good news in the job market means eventual good news for the housing market.

Trulia’s Chief Economist Jed Kolko perused the February jobs report released by the Department of Labor recently, and found a couple of indicators that bode well for housing: unemployment rates amongst young people have gone down, and construction employment rates have gone up.

Looking at the rate of change, Kolko found that construction employment, which makes up 4.2 percent of total employment in the country, was up 2.5 percent versus three months ago, outpacing overall employment growth (2.2 percent). While still down from the height of the housing boom, the numbers are headed in the right direction.

While the U.S. added 227,000 jobs last month (though the overall unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent), Kolko zeroed in on the stats for young people (between the ages of 25 and 34). He found that the unemployment rate for this group dropped to 8.7 percent in February, down from 9 percent in the previous month. Now, 74.7 percent of 25- to 34-year olds are employed, up by almost one percent from a year ago.

As has been a frequently covered topic recently, many young people have been waiting out the recession from the comfort of their parents’ homes. Now that job prospects are looking a little brighter, we may see a new population of home buyers and renters.

While the jobs report didn’t zoom in on DC, a report from the Center for Regional Analysis estimated that 1 million new jobs will come to the area in the next 20 years, overwhelming the current housing stock. Our high construction activity may stay that way for a while.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/strong_jobs_report_bodes_well_for_housing/5271.