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Continued Job Growth Will Help Housing Industry

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Later this week, we get some key data to help judge the state of the nation's housing market. There are some early signs of recovery, but home prices are still falling in many areas, as NPR's Chris Arnold reports.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE: Tomorrow, we'll get the latest word on home prices from what's called the S&P Case-Shiller index. That keeps showing price declines in many areas. Though those price drops have been leveling off, so things definitely aren't as bad as they were.

CHRIS MAYER: The best news for housing has actually been the return of jobs and job growth to the economy.

ARNOLD: Chris Mayer is a housing economist at Columbia University's Business School. Over the past four months, the U.S. has gained on average more than 200,000 jobs per month. Many economists find that encouraging, although the last time we got the numbers, the job gains fell pretty sharply. That was the numbers for in March, according to the Labor Department. Mayer says a continued job growth is essential to getting the housing market back on its feet.

MAYER: To the extent that more people have jobs and more confidence in their economic situation, we're going to start to see people have the confidence to come into the market and buy houses.

ARNOLD: One thing that good be a good sign, first time home-buyers are making up a larger percentage of home sales. Also, home sales overall are above where they were a year ago. On the downside though, several million more foreclosures still threaten to push down home prices lower.

Chris Arnold, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

NPR correspondent Chris Arnold is based in Boston. His reports are heard regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. He joined NPR in 1996 and was based in San Francisco before moving to Boston in 2001.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.