Housing will never return to pre-crisis levels because baby boomers are aging and the next generation lacks the population numbers to support the credit and homeownership expansion that occurred in the decades leading up to the credit meltdown. The U.S. economy since the 1980s managed to subsidize spending in other areas by leaning on housing. Home equity loans were a major problem in the meltdown of the housing industry. The population growth after the boom basically drove consumption, and we had this remarkable increase in demand for housing. Now that the boomers are heading into retirement, future populations are smaller and it is unlikely housing will ever get back to the peak levels experienced before the 2008 financial crisis. We are not going to have the degree of credit availability that we had back in 2005. Despite housing still facing a great deal of uncertainty, Brian Montgomery, chairman of the Collingwood Group, told the same crowd that the nation can “expect mild to moderate improvement in the housing market.” Home prices are already ticking up, especially in AZ, he noted. But Montgomery conceded that rules drafted to fix housing, including the qualified mortgage rule, are still going to have a dramatic impact on the market. "Unwinding legislation is extremely difficult,” he said. “It’s almost impossible to unwind the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), but it doesn’t mean you can’t try to soften what they are trying to do. We need to make it easier for buyers to obtain loans before we will see a big improvement in the market.”

Another Real Estate Meltdown Not Likely..........

Housing will never return to pre-crisis levels because baby boomers are aging and the next generation lacks the population numbers to support the credit and homeownership expansion that occurred in the decades leading up to the credit meltdown. The U.S. economy since the 1980s managed to subsidize spending in other areas by leaning on housing. Home equity loans were a major problem in the meltdown of the housing industry. The population growth after the boom basically drove consumption, and we had this remarkable increase in demand for housing. Now that the boomers are heading into retirement, future populations are smaller and it is unlikely housing will ever get back to the peak levels experienced before the 2008 financial crisis. Credit availability is the second factor, We are not going to have the degree of credit availability that we had back in 2005. The nation can expect mild to moderate improvement in the housing market. Home prices are already ticking up, especially in AZ. But Montgomery conceded that rules drafted to fix housing, including the qualified mortgage rule, are still going to have a dramatic impact on the market. We need to make it easier for buyers to obtain loans before we will see a big improvement in the market.