Chart of the Week: House of Cards

IMF Blog, August 21, 2017

Source details

Publication: The Editors, August 21, 2017.
Based on research by Lisa Dettling and Joanne W. Hsu, senior economists at the US Federal Reserve, published in the June issue of Finance & Development magazine.
Topic: trends in home ownership and housing wealth for millennials compared with prior generations.

Millennial home ownership rates are nearly 10 percent lower than those of their baby boomer and Generation X counterparts of the same age.
For millennials who have purchased a home, net housing wealth—the value of the home, minus mortgage debt—is about the same as that of their baby boomer parents at the same age.
New research suggests barriers to financing a home, such as borrowing constraints, are at least partially to blame for falling home ownership rates and rising co-residence rates.
A recent study in the UK finds that groups experiencing low home ownership rates at age 30 tend to catch up later in life.

It remains to be seen whether millennials are delaying home purchases or forgoing home ownership altogether.
Whether financing barriers (including borrowing constraints) will ease in the future is unknown.
The distinction between delayed ownership and permanent declines in ownership has implications for housing demand, intergenerational wealth, and policy responses.

IMF’s Global Housing Watch for research and data on housing markets around the world.
Additional IMF blog posts on global house prices and a recent chart of the week on the housing price boom in Norway.

Source: Chart of the Week: House of Cards — The Editors, August 21, 2017.