Despite the government shutdown and looming debt ceiling debate, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) forecasts growth of the housing industry will continue through 2015 although at a slightly slower pace, according to economists gathered for the NAHB’s Fall 2013 Construction Forecast Webinar. Noting the formation of households dropped from a high of 1.4 million annually during the housing boom to 500,000 during the Great Recession, it has now climbed back to 700,000. Says NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe, “From the standpoint of GDP growth, housing has been a plus, growing at two, three and four times the rate of the rest of the economy in recent quarters.” NAHB forecasts 924,000 housing starts this year, 629,000 of which are single-family homes, and that number will rise above the million mark in 2015. Additionally, as MHProNews has learned, NAHB predicts multifamily housing will rise 20 percent this year to 296,000 units and an added ten percent in 2014 to 326,000 units.
