During the last six years, the housing market has plummeted and mounted a reascent. But while home prices continue to soar in many cities across the country, a number of more ominous metrics illustrate that the housing market is far from healthy.
The most obvious of these are the sales of new and existing single-family homes. New home sales remain sharply lower since the financial crisis, down by 38% compared to the average since 1978. And sales of previously owned homes, while in much better shape, are still roughly 20% below the rate one would expect from projecting the pre-crisis trend forward.
What's behind these trends? That's the subject of the video below, in which Motley Fool financial and healthcare bureau chief Michael Douglass and senior banking specialist John Maxfield discuss the inherent weaknesses in the demand for new housing and the supply of existing homes.
