Having thoughts about selling your house?

If your only concern is that its price might drop (and we had a really nice house price recovery and more), then you should NOT!

Back in April we’ve published that the US housing was on a very solid footing here (read Should You Sell Your House Now?). Here is a very simple math why that would still very much in place:

• the US has about 135 million households
• the population growth of 0.7% results in demand for 950k new households annually (950k=135m x 0.7%)
• Around 300k teardowns of old houses happen annually
• IN TOTAL to meet the demand of new population growth and teardowns, the US needs at least 1,250k new houses a year (950k + 300k)
• Yet for the last few years housing starts were barely above 1.1M (annualized number)

This year housing starts are running fairly modest too.  For example, the July housing starts of 1,180k are still below that needed rate of 1,250k of new houses starts. The Chart below depicts that housing starts were running well below that required rate for the last 10 years.

Therefore, no overbuilt in sight – an inventory is well under control. We can even talk about some deficit in certain areas. Hence, your house is in a good shape financially!

Did I say anything about interest rates or job growth or an economy? No! These would be secondary factors when supply/demand outlook is strong (a bit of a regional impact is inevitable).  Again, other factors (interest rates and jobs) would give way to the primary drivers – the demand for housing units is exceeding a supply.

Folks just need dwellings!