Homebuilding Boom?

Megan McArdle, who writes for The Atlantic magazine believes the statistics indicate one is coming in this post, Are There Too Many Homes in America:

Nonetheless, underlying pressure is mounting. The population is still growing despite the lack of new homes. Household formation has been slow, but this seems to be primarily because younger workers are moving back in with their parents or taking on more roommates than usual. All in all, it looks like there might be 2 million fewer households than we would expect given the adult population in the country

. . .

No one can predict with accuracy if and when household formation will break out of its rut and millions of new home buyers and renters will flood on to the market. However, rental markets in some places are already looking tight and I suspect that a strong uptick in construction soon. It might be too early to predict an outright boom, but the fundamentals are building.

Just as with the housing crash. it can seem as if nothing is happening until it all happens at once

For very readable economic news, McArdle is always worth checking out.