Echo-Boomers Drive Housing Demand

25-44 Age Group Enters Prime Home-Buying Years

July 31, 2009

Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies recently released its 2009 State of the Nation's Housing report. The report said that although the economic crisis has dampened household growth, the housing needs of the echo-boom generation - those born between 1982 and 2000 - will increase the demand for new homes.

According to the report, from 2010 - 2020, the number of echo-boomers ages 25 to 44 will still have 5.9 million more members that the baby boomers did when they were the same age. The number of households is also expected to increase by at least 2 million and up to 3.4 million during the same period.

The report predicts that the growth rate of ethnic households, especially Asian and Hispanic, will increase for echo-boomers, while white and black households will both experience a diminished growth rate.

Gary Garcynski, former president of the National Association of Home Builders, said that although recovery in the housing market is likely to be slow, locations that did not experience unsustainable increases in housing production during the boom years will be the first to recover.

The Harrisonburg and Rockingham County region of Virginia, with its slow and steady growth performance, is therefore poised for quicker recovery than many areas of the country.