Harvard Housing Report: Housing Market Still Short-Changing Renters, Young Americans

The Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies released its 2018 "State of the Nation's Housing" report on Tuesday, continuing an annual event first launched in 1988. A website announcing the new report relates some of the findings from the 2018 to the findings of the 1988 report. For instance, homeownership rates among young adults are lower in 1988 than they were in 1988, and a larger share of renters is cost burdened now than in 1988. The report pins the blame for those realities on the soaring cost of housing.

Despite the declining homeownership rate among young Americans, the overall homeownership rate increased in 2017 for the first time in 13 years. Another key finding of the report is ongoing changes to the demographics of households in the county. Aging baby boomers means an aging household, on average. A final point to mention here is the report's finding that multi-family residential construction has leveled off, potentially placing more of the housing market at risk of housing cost burdens.

While you dig into the 2018 report, don't forget to reference the details of the 2017 report, which focused on the nation's dwindling affordable housing supply.