Joint Center for Housing – Harvard University: The State of the Nations Housing 2016: “By many measures, the US housing market has recovered substantially from the crash. According to CoreLogic estimates, nominal home prices were back within 6 percent of their previous peak in early 2016, although still down nearly 20 percent in real terms. The uptick in nominal prices helped to reduce the number of homeowners underwater on their mortgages from 12.1 million at the end of 2011 to 4.3 million at the end of 2015. Delinquency rates also receded, with the share of loans entering foreclosure down sharply as well. But at 1.1 million units, new home construction was still running near historic lows last year. A key factor holding back housing starts is the sustained falloff in household growth. Given the size and age of the adult population and under normal economic conditions, roughly 1.2 million net new households would have formed on average each year in 2007–2013. But the actual increase was just half that number as the weak economy made it difficult for young adults to live on their own and for immigrants to settle in the United States…”